We're on the Telly again

 

One of the last traditional grounds this Friday night as we visit Greenock to take on Morton in the cinch Championship. This game kicks off at 7:45pm. If you are unable to attend the match, don't worry, BBC Scotland have got your back and have chosen it as your preferred Friday night viewing. Maybe the Beeb have a sort of sadistic tendency and look forward to more pain being inflicted upon us as we struggle to get eleven fit players on the park. The olde magic sponge has lost it's magic and Robbie Deas is beyond that having suffered a broken shin bone against Raith Rovers to become the latest victim of the Caley Jags Crippling Curse. We wish him well in his recovery.

MATCH/TICKET/BUS/INFO

SUPPORTERS BUS 07462218717 2:30PM

Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	20	12	4	4	46	18	+28
Away	17	10	3	4	35	19	+16
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	37	22	7	8	81	37	+44

We have the edge over Morton, but honours are even over the last six meetings. The worrying trend recently has been losing home games. That 6-1 thrashing we dished out at Cappielow feels like a long time ago now. However, with injuries dominating our headlines just now, we will do well to get out of this with anything. It could be a long night on Friday. 

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

0 - 1 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

6 - 1 (A)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

2 - 0 (H)

4 - 1 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

2 - 2 (A)

Earlier this season we went down 0 - 1 to Morton at the Caledonian Stadium, a Grant Gillespie penalty in the 85th minute doing the damage. That was Austin Samuels' last game for us after going off injured in the 24th minute.

More rubbish than the streets of Edinburgh:  The fans turned up looking for a reaction after the feeble attempt at Firhill last Friday. They would leave disappointed after 95 minutes with lots of questions unanswered as they slumped to a second defeat in a row to a bang average Morton side who had previously only ever won three games at the Caledonian Stadium in nineteen encounters. Goalless at the break, Grant Gillespie slotted home a penalty with five minutes remaining after Duffy handled in the box. Woeful stuff from Billy Dodds and his hapless team. Simply another inept performance from the Caley Jags who are now six points behind early leaders Ayr United.

Ayr United beat Partick Thistle 4-2 on Tuesday night and that leaves the table looking like this, It's all very tight at the top end of the table.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1.	Ayr United	12	6	3	3	26	17	21
2.	Inverness CT	12	6	3	3	15	11	21
3.	Partick Thistle	12	6	2	4	25	21	20
4.	Queens Park	12	6	2	4	19	19	20
5.	Dundee	12	5	3	4	19	16	18
6.	Morton	12	5	3	4	15	13	18
7.	Raith Rovers	12	5	1	6	13	13	16
8.	Cove Rangers	12	3	3	6	16	20	12
9.	Arbroath	12	2	4	6	8	15	10
10.	Hamilton Ac.	12	2	4	6	9	20	10

FRIDAY 28TH OCTOBER

    Morton v Inverness

Queen's v Dundee

SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER

Arbroath v Ayr Utd

  Hamilton v Cove R  

    Rovers v Partick

Last Time Out

Injury ravaged Inverness were held to a draw by Raith Rovers who must have thought they would break their hoodoo. Over twenty years since they have beaten us over ninety minutes. Robbie Deas was magnificent leading the back four by example and scored a wonderful headed goal off Zak Delaney's inviting dipping cross. Unfortunateley he was injured late in the game and we have now been told the extent of that. He has broken his right leg. That took the shine off a great defensive effort with Mark Ridgers also denying Raith with four vital saves. 

Morton earned a good away point at Dens Park as the Dark Blues ended the game with ten men. Dundee's Josh Mulligan was red carded with ten minutes remaining after two late bookings in a four minute spell. Morton are unbeaten in their last four games since being hammered 5-1 by Partick Thistle with three wins prior to the draw at Dundee. They also dished out a five goal thrashing of their own over Accies who beat us recently.

Latest Team News

Well, what can we say that's not already been said. Multiple injuries that will see us struggle to be competitive for the forseeable future. Most serious are Deas (broken right leg), Sutherland (ACL), Walsh (ACL), Roddy MacGregor (ankle), Devine (knee), Dan Mackay (knee, extent not known). Add Allardice, Duffy and Samuels who are hopefully getting close. Max Ram and Sean Welsh are just back after injury and game time is all part of their rehab. Let's see what Billy Dodds has to say about any players likely to be ready for Friday night.

 

Eck's Morton menu:

Morton have announced the signing of former Celtic, Hibs, Livingstone and St Johnston defender Efe Ambrose today (Wednesday) ahead of the clash with Inverness. 34 year old Ambrose has been capped 51 times for Nigeria in a glittering career. Imrie is building a solid squad at Cappielow and they have one of the best left backs in the Championship in Lewis Strapp. Up front Robbie Muirhead and Jai Quitongo will cause probems and on loan Irishman Jaze Kabia will be out to prove he's ready for a start.

 

Here's Dougie talking after the Dundee game.

One for the diary.

We have been drawn to face Stirling Albion at home in the 3rd Round of the 2022/23 ScottishCup.

3rd round ties to take place on weekend of Saturday 26th November.

We have played Stirling Albion twice previously in the Scottish Cup. The first encounter was a 6-1 win at Forthbank in 2007. The second game required a replay in 2016 when we won 2-0 in Inverness after a no scoring draw in Stirling.

 

 

 

1st goal: Ridgers could've caught it

2nd goal: saved the pen then he looked to go into slow motion for Morton to tap in the rebound 

7 minutes ago, WYNESS101 said:

1st goal: Ridgers could've caught it

2nd goal: saved the pen then he looked to go into slow motion for Morton to tap in the rebound 

How many times over the years has he saved us though? Everyone has a bad day at office 

Dodds has been getting ratty with a few players in the last month or so. Maybe he is feeling the pressure that supporters have been putting him under when performances have been poor. However, in terms of man management, the current crop of injuries would seem to suggest that support and sympathy are vital to retain unity under very trying circumstances. I did not expect us to win at Morton but potentially we had no too bad a team on the park. The Manager needs to calm down and put a supporting arm around EVERY player to help us tough this out. 

1 hour ago, WYNESS101 said:

2nd goal: saved the pen then he looked to go into slow motion for Morton to tap in the rebound 

You have to look at the defenders too. The taker Gillespie is always going to be favourite for any rebounds, but Muirhead is in the box sharpish, holding off Delaney. Meanwhile Duffy doesn't really burst a gut to get there either.

1 hour ago, CELTIC1CALEY3 said:

Dodds has been getting ratty with a few players in the last month or so. Maybe he is feeling the pressure that supporters have been putting him under when performances have been poor. However, in terms of man management, the current crop of injuries would seem to suggest that support and sympathy are vital to retain unity under very trying circumstances. I did not expect us to win at Morton but potentially we had no too bad a team on the park. The Manager needs to calm down and put a supporting arm around EVERY player to help us tough this out. 

Our job is to support the team. Regardless of how we do that his job is to man manage the team and I agree he needs to find a way to get us through this patch by supporting his fit players as well as the injured. 

On 10/28/2022 at 10:44 PM, Jaggernaut said:

Well another game where we could have played till midnight and never scored. Again, wrong tactics for me from Dodds. You have to control the midfield, that means playing one up top with midfield supporting. Playing Oakley with Bill Mckay just doesn't give us enough. And I really thought his subs were bad, and as for his interview after the match, that is just unprofessional, creating something that should have been kept in the dressing room, now we all want to know what happened! I'm starting to get the feeling that Dodds is losing the dressing room, if he hasn't lost it already. I don't see these players wanting to run through brick walls for him, there's no zip and no passion.

The problem I have with the 'stronger midfield' suggestion, is precisely who else we were going to put in midfield?  Arguably he had to hold Hyde back to replace Welsh, who was starting his first game in months, Shaw was kept back to replace Doran. The only thing he could have done was play McKay deeper. I actually felt we were passing pretty well [including forward!], and there was good movement at times [pretty much what the BBC commentary noted], there were even some good balls in, but yes the cutting edge wasn't quite there.  Boyd had a pretty good game until he got sight of the goal and then it went to pot. We also pushed the full backs up quite a bit with both Delaney and Carson doing quite well [until the last 20mins perhaps] but it left an untried CB pairing exposed.  It's not a reflection on Duffy/Ram who have barely played this season, let alone together, but I feel a Deas/Devine CB line-up would have seen us get something out of the game [although can you legislate for Ridgers howler?]   Once Morton got two ahead it allowed them to dictate the game and defend in a 'relaxed' way, but the early signs had been good. Seeing Samuels on the bench is encouraging, Mackay needs help and those two are a good pairing. I don't think Dodds has lost his players, clearly an issue with Ridgers, which I think was a carry over from a previous game or two?

I'll present this as a conspiracy as I have no evidence and don't want to name my source.

Our CEO was told to cut costs and that included not renewing the expired contract of our Sporting Director.  To avoid having to sack his buddy, the CEO decided to  justify keeping the Sporting Director by temporarily giving him the duties of the outgoing Commercial Director.

The Sporting Director isn't liking this and has hatched a plan to remove the current Manager and either move back to that position himself or appoint a less experienced and cheaper alternative that will then allow him to be more hands on in that area without putting himself in the firing line and justify him retaining the Sporting Director position.

Relationship between Dodds and Robbo/Gardiner has been strained for over a year now.

Ridgers and Robbo are very close.

In other news. Grassa is about to make a return to the board.

 

New Topic for this required !

Wyness - you were misinformed - a window of the supporters bus was minimally damaged whilst carrying out a traffic manoeuvre in a very tight area.   That’s how rumours start - from exaggeration.  The damage was so slight the bus was able to continue its journey - if smashed that would not have been possible.  Check facts please. 

How can you call someone misinformed and then confirm that what they said was correct and a window was damaged? 😂

1 hour ago, STFU said:

How can you call someone misinformed and then confirm that what they said was correct and a window was damaged? 😂

There’s a difference between ‘smashed’ and minimal damage.