Morton @ home Dec30th

[tm4tj]

Last Game of 2023

 

Last game before the bells brings Morton North for the first time this season. We played them recently at Cappielow and went down to a disappointing 2-1 defeat in a game held over from 21st October. Since then Morton have clambered up to fifth in the table while we have slumped to 8th with back to back defeats and a welcome point at Firhill.

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Match/Ticket Info

Official Preview
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Venue

Pld

Won

Drn

Lst

For

Agst

+ / -

Home	21	12	5	4	48	20	+28
Away	20	11	3	6	38	26	+12
Neutral	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	41	23	8	10	86	46	+40

Sloppy Stuff in Greenock:  1 - 2 Wallace Duffy missed out with a calf injury with Jake Davidson getting a rare start and the paternal David Carson was still on maternity leave. Good to see Roddy Macgregor was on the bench following another lengthy layoff through injury alongside Sean Welsh and Nathan Shaw. Morton had three players that were on our books recently. Defender Kirk Broadfoot, wide player Stephen Boyd and striker George Oakley. And it was that man Oakley that gave Morton the lead after errors in defence. Jack Baird smashed in a second ten minutes from time. Adam Brooks added a late consolation, but it was too little too late in Greenock as the revolution ground to a halt.

Last 10 Competitive Meetings

1 - 2 (A)

2 - 1 (A)

2 - 2 (H)

0 - 4 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

1 - 0 (A)

0 - 1 (H)

6 - 1 (A)

1 - 1 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

Last Time Out

We have struggled to make headway recently losing to two of the three sides below us in the league. We steadied the ship somewhat with a good point at Partick in a game Ferguson thought we deserved better from, but we would all have taken a point before hand. Max Anderson's deflected shot found it's way into the net after just 21 seconds, our fastest ever goal but Jack McMillan levelled ten minutes later and that's how it ended at Firhill.

Last Five L W L L D 

 

Dougie Imrie's side have had a mini revival. Three wins and a draw in the last four since Morton stopped the rot, including the 2-1 win over us in October. and that has seen them jump up to where we were looking to be before we lost to Morton and Arbroath.

Last Five L W W W D 

 

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Dundee United v Partick on Friday night
1.	Raith Rovers	17	12	4	1	33	22	40
2.	Dundee Utd	16	10	5	1	34	7	35
3.	Partick Thistle	17	8	5	4	34	27	29
4.	Dunfermline	16	6	4	6	20	18	22
5.	Morton	16	5	3	8	17	24	18
6.	Ayr United	16	5	3	8	22	30	18
7.	Airdrieonians	17	5	3	9	14	22	18
8.	Inverness CT	17	4	5	8	20	21	17
9.	Arbroath	16	5	1	10	21	31	16
10.	Queens Park	16	3	5	8	19	32	14

 

The bottom half of the table is getting very congested and the value of a mini-run has been exemplified with Morton climbing up to fifth in the table, a position we were also looking at before disappointing results against Morton and Arbroath recently.

Raith Rovers will head the table going into 2024 and a lot of that is down to their never say die attitude with late goals being a major factor in their climb to the top.

The January sales are going to be crucial this season with any team capable of winning on the day. As they always say, there are no easy games in the Championship, and so it proves to be the way...

 

 

Latest Team News

Ferguson has Carson back training but big Harry can be added to the Doran, Samuels and MacGregor list of guys still out.

 

Lewis Strapp is back at Morton, he of the long throw and it was a useful weapon against us last time out. George Oakley is thriving again. 

Last starting XI v Airdrie

 

Mullen

 

French   Baird   O'Connor   Strapp

 

Gillespie (Power 60)   Wilson

 

Blues (Boyd 60)   Crawford   McGrattan (Bearne 69)

 

Muirhead

 

Subs Not used: MacDonald; O'Boy

 

 

[tm4tj]

Dundee United 3-0 Partick Thistle

Tony Watt Hat-Trick

Pos Team Pld W D L F A Pts Tony Watt 3-0 Partick Thistle 1. Raith Rovers 17 12 4 1 33 22 40 2. Dundee Utd 17 11 5 1 37 7 38 3. Partick Thistle 18 8 5 5 34 30 29 4. Dunfermline 16 6 4 6 20 18 22 5. Morton 16 5 3 8 17 24 18 6. Ayr United 16 5 3 8 22 30 18 7. Airdrieonians 17 5 3 9 14 22 18 8. Inverness CT 17 4 5 8 20 21 17 9. Arbroath 16 5 1 10 21 31 16 10. Queens Park 16 3 5 8 19 32 14

[IBM]

A cold and dull day so wrap up well!  I hope we play well and get a win to start us on a run hopefully.

[Northern_jaggie]

Would love it if we crossed the ball from wide, we seem to want to walk it centrally towards goal and it’s honking to watch. Spoony off injured. 
 

We are set up nearly man for man in the middle of the park with Morton and we could do with a change of shape for more width (as well as Carson and Welsh on). 

[Yngwie]

FT 0-0, meh.

[Yngwie]

Manager of the Month award, followed by 1 win in 6.

[Douglas Mackenzie]

Scrappy game in which we tried to walk ball into net.We need to take more chances and shoot for goal.I think we needed more balls in from the wings and great to see Carson come on.Good we kept the back door closed,just a pity we were no sharper up front.

Neither side shone today and if we don't up the tempo and get sharper at passing the best we can hope for is to stay  in this league. Hopefully we will see positive moves in tansfer market 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Douglas Mackenzie

[Duke of Inverness]

Dreadful, dreadful stuff. One of the worst football matches I've ever suffered. We are going to be worryingly looking over our shoulder if this is the level of output until May.

[caley100]

Shocking performance.  Could have played for weeks and not scored,  Some players were awful, Shaw needs to be dropped and Gilmore needs shooting practice. 

The subs that came on showed how poor our squad is.  

As Ferguson says we're def.in a relegation battle.

[Howdenender]

Just about the worst game I have ever had the misfortune to attend. Embarrassing lack of quality, no excitement whatsoever, freezing cold, no wonder attendances are falling away. We really are a grim watch these days.

[RednBlackComeback]

Mind-numbing stuff!

Sideways passing, then backwards, followed by some more sideways passing.

Zero entertainment!

[Yngwie]

18 minutes ago, Howdenender said:

Just about the worst game I have ever had the misfortune to attend. Embarrassing lack of quality, no excitement whatsoever, freezing cold, no wonder attendances are falling away. We really are a grim watch these days.

This is exactly why we need to sack Dodds. Oh wait…

[Robert]

The only positive this afternoon is that we didn’t concede late on and end up getting beaten!

We probably should have had a penalty when Devine was pushed in the box but he did go down too easily so maybe that’s what stopped the red giving it.

Morton’s time wasting was disgraceful but that didn’t cost us a win.

I’ve two real frustrations with our play in recent home games. We always seem to pass when a shot is on and end up giving possession away, and we pull everyone back when defending corners, so have no outball, so end up back under pressure.

3-5-2 seems to have tightened us up, but we’ve lost Shaw’s positive influence as a result and in the first half in particular we were not giving players support when attacking from wide positions. I think we should have changed to 4-4-2 early in the second half with Shaw and Longstaff testing Morton down the wings as whilst Davidson and Harper tried to, they didn’t deliver anything dangerous.

It was good to see Carson back and hopefully his attitude will have a positive impact.

We have two big away games against teams round about us. We ideally need to win both or at least get four points.

[Duke of Inverness]

28 minutes ago, RednBlackComeback said:

Mind-numbing stuff!

Sideways passing, then backwards, followed by some more sideways passing.

Zero entertainment!

The honeymoon period is over Dunc. If that's your tactics and game plan, think again. 

Most folk go to football for some entertainment and a release from the humdrums of life. 

Cheer on their team and have some banter with fellow fans. 

That had no joy, no excitement and had approx 2000 ICT fans feeling and sounding like Victor Meldrew. 

Not good enough and I'm not going back anytime soon to waste my time watching utter s###e!!

Edited December 30, 2023 by Duke of Inverness

[forresjags]

Cannot believe our lack of desire to win a football match.

Things have to change in the second half or we are a stick on for the automatic drop.

The five at the back definitely does not work.Lost count the amount of times harper had the ball on the half way line and had to go back due to nobody wide in front of him. 

We just carry on threat going forward.

[forresjags]

IMO we need to move the ball quicker and cannot fathom how Welsh (if fit) isn't starting.

 

[tm4tj]

What we need is Cammy Mackay to come on and do this

Of course he’s just scored a thunderbastard. https://t.co/JtETwh7YbQ pic.twitter.com/xdNdGs3Ef3

— Iain Latto (@iain_latto) December 30, 2023

[IBM]

57 minutes ago, RednBlackComeback said:

Mind-numbing stuff!

Sideways passing, then backwards, followed by some more sideways passing.

Zero entertainment!

The only bit of entertainment in the North Stand was the birthday greetings for 'Old Caley Girl' 

[Douglas Mackenzie]

I suppose we shouldn't be too negative because other than Spoony this is Dodds team and Dunc up until now could only take players on loan or on a free.Silk purse and sows  ear comes to mind.He has to fo his best with what he has at his disposal.

Playing out from the back is good if the tempo is high and you have runners for the channels to cross in for strikers. That didn't happen today and Shaw didn't  look settled where he was playing.I think we needed Welsh in the middle to direct operations.

Let's give Dunc a chance to build his own team.

[caley100]

I hope Ferguson has lined up some players, especially a striker,  Wotherspoon is finished with us and will sign for Dee utd.  Our midfield at the moment is pysh.

[Robert]

33 minutes ago, caley100 said:

Wotherspoon is finished with us and will sign for Dee utd.

I fear you are right on that as I’ve had a pal who’s a United fan messaging asking how bad his injury was. Seems it’s the talk of some United forums.

I’m not sure exactly when in January his deal with us ends. I’m sure I read mid-January somewhere so if he’s fit we hopefully have him for a few more games.

[+Tree]

Game showed where we have been the last few years with a lack of cutting edge up front. The loss of Wotherspoon removes quality and when Billy is removed we are left with nothing.

A process is underway to change how the team plays and unlike under Dodds there is a point to the way we are playing but lack quality in some areas to make a difference. Time is needed to bed in the changes and you could see some of the frustration from Duncan at some points.

Shaw is a major weakness due to him lack of football awareness and having Carson back may allow a change to a more flexible shape than we have been playing since he dropped out.

[IBM]

12 minutes ago, Tree said:

Game showed where we have been the last few years with a lack of cutting edge up front. The loss of Wotherspoon removes quality and when Billy is removed we are left with nothing.

A process is underway to change how the team plays and unlike under Dodds there is a point to the way we are playing but lack quality in some areas to make a difference. Time is needed to bed in the changes and you could see some of the frustration from Duncan at some points.

Shaw is a major weakness due to him lack of football awareness and having Carson back may allow a change to a more flexible shape than we have been playing since he dropped out.

You are right Tree, although there has been an improvement since Dodds was here and we have had the new manager bounce but unfortunately it wasn't very big!  It is going to be a long haul and we will have to offload a few players to make way for some new signings in January.

[Robert]

4 hours ago, caley100 said:

Gilmore needs shooting practice. 

At least he was prepared to have a shot unlike many of the team. Despite having the bulk of possession and territory, we only had 7 attempts in the whole game, with Gilmour responsible for 3 of them. The other attempts were by Anderson, Harper, Mckay and Carson.

Only 2 were on target, by Gilmour and Mckay. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Robert

[Robert]

2 hours ago, Douglas Mackenzie said:

Shaw didn't  look settled where he was playing.I think we needed Welsh in the middle to direct operations.

Let's give Dunc a chance to build his own team.

I agree with all of that. Shaw is best playing wide and taking players on. He’s currently sitting behind the front two but also trying to support the right wing back which means he’s a bit of a headless chicken at times.

3 5 2 doesn’t suit him and we’re not getting the best out of him as a result. He’s best running on to a ball, not receiving it facing backwards.

He maybe needs to be an impact sub in this system rather than being a square peg in a round hole.

I was surprised Welsh didn’t come on today as his craft in midfield could have made the difference. We’ve seen that Anderson can play successfully in a more advanced role so Welsh could have slotted in alongside Gilmour. 

Edited December 30, 2023 by Robert