​🏆​SC Greenock Morton v Motherwell 09/02/2024

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, bobbybingo said:

On the bright side, Vale's already scored two more goals than Van Veen. He definitely needs to be given his chance.

Agreed Bobby, but my point is that he should have been given a bit more gametime in the past week. SK has been overly cautious. Had he brought on Vale earlier in the Ross County  game and played him alongside Bair for a spell, with 2 up front that might just have masked his intentions for last night's debacle and given our dear friend Dougie more to think about. 

[gaz7]

45 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

They played the ball on the deck far more often than we did, unlike us they didn't continually resort to the hoof ball. Indeed for their second goal the ball never left the surface. I'm in no way suggesting Morton were a silky deck playing team but the played the ball on the surface more than we did. Every time SOD , Kelly,  Mugabi, Miller, or Butcher got the ball you knew it was going skywards. 

I dont think they did pal but that's football all about opinions.  I actually watched game again today on Iplayer and we did have some nice 1 touch stuff but went nowhere with it. 

They weren't miles better but scored 1st and had bigger players than us who bullied us a bit and wanted it a wee bit more I felt. 

I'm same as you in totally raging with result and wondering where we go next but I know something we can't give up.

[bobbybingo]

5 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Agreed Bobby, but my point is that he should have been given a bit more gametime in the past week. SK has been overly cautious. Had he brought on Vale earlier in the Ross County  game and played him alongside Bair for a spell, with 2 up front that might just have masked his intentions for last night's debacle and given our dear friend Dougie more to think about. 

Agreed. What's done is done, but Kettlewell needs to be using Vale and the other guys going forward. I could understand why he was loathe to use subs when the bench was almost devoid of decent options, but it's looking stronger now, so let's see them getting a fair run out.

[Kmcalpin]

Dougie Imrie would have known we'd field a 4-2-3-1 line up or similar and known the personnel. He set out to suffocate Spittal and Paton, which they did successfully and thereby cut out Bair's supply on the deck. So  we start firing high balls to him much to the delight of the Morton central defence. Now even we know he's no target man. We had no Plan B. So predictable. 

[smiddy]

12 hours ago, Wellsince1976 said:

I agree. He needs to be dropped. Bit I don`t think the manager will, as that would definately end any faint hopes he has of a Euro place.

fuck pandering to his euro place, he didnt give a fuck for my scottish cup away days only kidding , but that shouldnt stop him from being dropped, anyway as iv said before i dont think the manager has the bawz to drop him , but we shall see,,,,,,,    unless he gets a mysterious training ground injury that would solve the problem

[smiddy]

8 hours ago, grizzlyg said:

I would take a draw just now if offered.  We had been doing well before last night. Just need a reset but will be a tough game especially with Miovski up top

and our shower of shite trying to mark him

[Kmcalpin]

I agree that Kelly needs to be "rested"  but what we don't know is what SK thinks about Oxborough. He's a known unknown.  

As it stands, the defence rightly has no confidence in their goalie and captain and he, rightly, has no confidence in them. 

[Mad Dog]

2 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

I agree that Kelly needs to be "rested"  but what we don't know is what SK thinks about Oxborough. He's a known unknown.  

As it stands, the defence rightly has no confidence in their goalie and captain and he, rightly, has no confidence in them. 

Not a complete unknown as he has played two cup games already.

[FirParkCornerExile]

1 hour ago, gaz7 said:

I dont think they did pal but that's football all about opinions.  I actually watched game again today on Iplayer and we did have some nice 1 touch stuff but went nowhere with it. 

They weren't miles better but scored 1st and had bigger players than us who bullied us a bit and wanted it a wee bit more I felt. 

I'm same as you in totally raging with result and wondering where we go next but I know something we can't give up.

I actually thought Morton were worse than I was expecting which makes it worse, they didn't need to try that hard and they had us beat.

[SteelmaninOZ]

Our goal in case you forgot we scored a goal.

 

[wellsince75]

1 hour ago, SteelmaninOZ said:

Our goal in case you forgot we scored a goal.

 

Very decent goal. Good play by Devine and good finish by Vale.

A few things spring to my mind as being obvious about the current team/set up. 

1) Kelly - being rested is no bad thing. This happened to Maxwell back in the day and he benefited from it. 

2) Centre Halves - we don't have 3 good centre halves - so don't always play 3.  

3) Devine and Gent both look very good in the wingback area play them both please.  

4) Play both Bair and Vale -   BUT when you bring on Obika -one of them needs to come off. They are not a good front 3. 

We've got more than enough goals in us to progress but we need to move away from being a soft touch for any set plays/crosses. 

[bobbybingo]

12 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

I actually thought Morton were worse than I was expecting which makes it worse, they didn't need to try that hard and they had us beat.

When you lose 2-1 to a team who had 1 shot on target....

[Kmcalpin]

26 minutes ago, wellsince75 said:

A few things spring to my mind as being obvious about the current team/set up. 

1) Kelly - being rested is no bad thing. This happened to Maxwell back in the day and he benefited from it. 

2) Centre Halves - we don't have 3 good centre halves - so don't always play 3.  

3) Devine and Gent both look very good in the wingback area play them both please.  

4) Play both Bair and Vale -   BUT when you bring on Obika -one of them needs to come off. They are not a good front 3. 

We've got more than enough goals in us to progress but we need to move away from being a soft touch for any set plays/crosses. 

A lot of sense in that. We need to toughen up the squad and add more physicality.

We need a new goalie, preferably one who is 6-3+ and good in the air. Priority for a rebuild. Short term, give Oxborough the gloves. 

Central defence? Where do we start? Sadly, I think Butcher is finished at this level. O'Donnell and McGinn don't have the height to play there, although McGinn has been a steadying influence and should retain his place. Both can't play in the same central set up. Mugabi - good in the air but a bit of a bombscare. For me the jury is still out on Blaney and Casey. We need more height and dominance in the middle. A priority for any rebuild.

Wing backs - short term, agreed.

Midfield we need a hard physical type in there. In Mark McGhee speak "someone to stand on heads".

Up front, yes I'd play both Bair and Vale, but please...keep their service on the deck. 

As my late dad used to say "Its possible to score when you don't have the ball, but its very rare". In any game, its highly unlikely that the opposition will willingly give you the ball; more often than not, you have to fight for possession. As we saw on Friday evening, its all very well having better players but you have to compete and win the ball first. If opponents choose to fire in high balls to your penalty box, you have to have the height and physicality at the back to nullify that. We just didn't. Paton marking Oakley at their first goal??? 

Win the ball first then feed your better players and let them strut their stuff. Morton would not have bullied teams in the top six or even Livingston the way they did with us.

[steelman1991]

32 minutes ago, wellgirl said:

SOD is six foot, he's got the height surely? 

Sadly just not the ability.

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, wellgirl said:

SOD is six foot, he's got the height surely? 

He is indeed. However the problem was that he was trying to mark guys who were 6-2 or 6-3 and heavier on Friday. 

[Kmcalpin]

1 hour ago, wellgirl said:

The thing is though surely. Van Veen is experienced in the SPL and a more experienced footballer at this level given his age. Whether Kettlewell got it right or wrong hes surely had reasons for easing the new players in whereas I assume part of the reason Van veen is getting game time is to sharpen up his match fitness and because they are paying so much for him - there would be questions asked about leaving someone on his salary on the bench given all the fanfare around his signing. 

Some truth in that. Of course SK had his reasons, but whether they were right or not is another matter.  It would not have harmed us to have given Vale more game time against Killie and/or Ross County and either started him on Friday or brought him on earlier. As it was Imrie knew exactly how we'd set up and did a proper job on us.

[FirParkCornerExile]

15 hours ago, wellgirl said:

As hard as this is. We need to move on. I'm not having a go at you here but we never do things the easy way do we. 

I've had 46 years of moving on , it's water off a ducks back within a day. I'm as close to chucking as I've ever been. I am seriously bored watching this year on year whinge about being skint , year on year fuck ups in Cups, year on year having to rebuild from loan deals every 6 months. I seriously question what would I miss.

 

 It's OK when you are young there is an air of excitement about it all but as you get older and see the same script year on year the attraction diminishes, well thats how I feel, maybe some other who started watching us in the 1970s still get the excitement. 

[dennyc]

26 minutes ago, Kmcalpin said:

Some truth in that. Of course SK had his reasons, but whether they were right or not is another matter.  It would not have harmed us to have given Vale more game time against Killie and/or Ross County and either started him on Friday or brought him on earlier. As it was Imrie knew exactly how we'd set up and did a proper job on us.

Agree with this. Personally I think the last half hour v County was a missed opportunity. Then again, if SK had made numerous substitutions on the hour and County had fought back, he would have been slaughtered for throwing away three precious points.

Also, as much as some fans have an OTT dislike of Imrie, perhaps he is turning out to be a very good Manager and an astute tactician. Credit where credit's due. He did us over.

[dennyc]

10 minutes ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

I've had 46 years of moving on , it's water off a ducks back within a day. I'm as close to chucking as I've ever been. I am seriously bored watching this year on year whinge about being skint , year on year fuck ups in Cups, year on year having to rebuild from loan deals every 6 months. I seriously question what would I miss.

 

 It's OK when you are young there is an air of excitement about it all but as you get older and see the same script year on year the attraction diminishes, well thats how I feel, maybe some other who started watching us in the 1970s still get the excitement. 

Since 1966 for me and I know exactly how you feel.

The issues within our Club run a lot deeper than whoever happens to be Manager. My main concern is I don't see anything encouraging me to believe things will improve any time soon. Any enjoyment I get is short term as the next disappointment/crisis is just around the corner. It is a chore to go to some games now and purchasing a Season Ticket fells more like a duty. But you might be right, it could be just an age thing😄.

The only comfort I take is that fans of other Clubs are experiencing similar issues. Why should that be the case? Perhaps despite ever improving facilities, sport science etc. etc., due to financial constraints and poor governance of the game, the standard we are witnessing is falling season upon season and consideration for fans is a thing of the past.

[santheman]

Me too and its definitely an age thing.

I went on Friday not expecting a lot and the team duly delivered. 5 years ago I would have been punching walls and been a nightmare to live with for a couple of days but now I just shrug my shoulders and try to motivate myself to go to the next game.

I think its going to get worse with the likes of Dundee Killie et al getting inward investment so they will probably (although not necessarily) be able to afford better players which in theory will leave clubs like us scraping along the bottom of the table fighting relegation.

Hopefully we get some investment, some new blood on the board and some kind of settled squad.

[bobbybingo]

57 minutes ago, dennyc said:

Also, as much as some fans have an OTT dislike of Imrie, perhaps he is turning out to be a very good Manager and an astute tactician. Credit where credit's due. He did us over.

He's turning out to be as big a pain in the arse as a manager as he was a player.

Interesting that a relative rookie was able to beat us tactically at the first time of asking when an old hand like Levein couldn't do it in 3 attempts.

[dennyc]

9 minutes ago, bobbybingo said:

He's turning out to be as big a pain in the arse as a manager as he was a player.

Interesting that a relative rookie was able to beat us tactically at the first time of asking when an old hand like Levein couldn't do it in 3 attempts.

Was he not in charge of Morton when Donnelly scored a late extra time winner at Fir Park to avoid a penalty shoot out? They put up a decent showing that game as well although we did waste lots of chances and dominate possession.

[bobbybingo]

22 minutes ago, dennyc said:

Was he not in charge of Morton when Donnelly scored a late extra time winner at Fir Park to avoid a penalty shoot out? They put up a decent showing that game as well although we did waste lots of chances and dominate possession.

You're right. Feels like an awful long time ago now.

[Great Balls of Shire]

2 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

I've had 46 years of moving on , it's water off a ducks back within a day. I'm as close to chucking as I've ever been. I am seriously bored watching this year on year whinge about being skint , year on year fuck ups in Cups, year on year having to rebuild from loan deals every 6 months. I seriously question what would I miss.

 

 It's OK when you are young there is an air of excitement about it all but as you get older and see the same script year on year the attraction diminishes, well thats how I feel, maybe some other who started watching us in the 1970s still get the excitement. 

 

 

2 hours ago, FirParkCornerExile said:

I've had 46 years of moving on , it's water off a ducks back within a day. I'm as close to chucking as I've ever been. I am seriously bored watching this year on year whinge about being skint , year on year fuck ups in Cups, year on year having to rebuild from loan deals every 6 months. I seriously question what would I miss.

 

 It's OK when you are young there is an air of excitement about it all but as you get older and see the same script year on year the attraction diminishes, well thats how I feel, maybe some other who started watching us in the 1970s still get the excitement. 

Great post and I get what you are saying.

I think we are more or less where we were when I started watching in mid 70s,

i . e mid table top league.... obviously there's a lot happened in between , cup win, relegation, play off win. That's just off top of my head...I did waver for a few years , circa 2004.

I still get a buzz here and there but if you analyse why you go too much , you probably would jack it in, the authorities don't sell it well, playing in dead of winter etc...it's better than shopping is about the best I can give you....keep the faith bud, we need you

[Spit_It_Out]

Yep i agree with a fair few of you i been going for around 45 years now to Fir Park i am nearly 50 years old and i am at the stage where i am so bored of the club it just feels like groundhog day more so last couple of years its been terrible.

Now i make a round trip of nearly 70 miles,i dont drive so i am at the stage where do i really need this,the x amount i am spending could go on something else  and the big question is would i really miss it alot enough to care.

This has nothing to do with the fact we got beat by Morton as someone said above used to its nothing really new its more so this season i look at the quality on the pitch and there is nothing to get me excited,not one player i want to turn up and watch.

So i shall be reviewing the new chairman and new ceo  watch over the summer what they are going to do moving forward and if i like what i hear see some progress then i shall turn up and if its more of the same then think it might be time to watch from afar sadly.