Play Off Final Airdrie Vs Morton

[Guest Peter LaFleur]

Morton’s defence strolled that tonight. Thought Fjortoft and Strapp in particular were the best on the park for me. Not sure how they perform on a regular basis but didn’t look to be your typical relegation fodder calamity defence. Blues, Salkeld and Muirhead were absolutely howling. 
Airdrie huffed and puffed but provided very little threat going forward then badly tired towards the end. Don’t really rate either Carrick or Gallagher as out and out goalscorers. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Peter LaFleur

[AMMjag]

13 minutes ago, Fae_the_'briggs said:

Turns out Morton didn't really need an emergency loan keeper for all he was called on to do. 

Had they been required to play with an outfield player or 14 year old child in goal then no doubt Airdrie would have leathered anything in the general direction of the goal. Why they wouldn't do this with Scott Fox in goal instead beats me. 

[Janne Lindberg's Laces]

14 minutes ago, Peter LaFleur said:

Morton’s defence strolled that tonight. Thought Fjortoft and Strapp in particular were the best on the park for me. Not sure how they perform on a regular basis but didn’t look to be your typical relegation fodder calamity defence. Blues, Salkeld and Muirhead were absolutely howling. 

That's the season in a nutshell. Defensively sound, even more so when Mcginty hasn't been on to have a minimum of 1 bombscare moment per match, but we're garbage up front and the midfield falls somewhere between the two. 

[madton]

1 hour ago, TxRover said:

Except that Lyon should have been off for a second yellow after the wrestling match. Certainly Airdrie almost disappeared after 70 minutes.

Lol, wut??

Absolute no chance of a second yellow there.

[Jamie_M]

35 minutes ago, Peter LaFleur said:

Morton’s defence strolled that tonight. Thought Fjortoft and Strapp in particular were the best on the park for me. Not sure how they perform on a regular basis but didn’t look to be your typical relegation fodder calamity defence. 

Because Captain calamity McGinty got sent off in our last game of the season so was suspended for the Montrose games, and thankfully left on the bench tonight.

[vikingTON]

Our defence has been 'quite well organised, mediocre' all season anyway, the main reason why we're in the playoffs is our beyond rancid forward line. 

McGinty should stay on the bench and then be huckled out the door for good after Friday's game regardless. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by vikingTON

[Chapelhall chap]

Morton played most of the football especially in the 2nd half and we looked flustered any time our player was on the ball apart from Turner. Never showed any threat for most of the game and physically we looked done in as the game ran on. Too hard for me to comment on all the injuries  as to how it affected us but a goal was always coming in that "8" minutes of injury time. I might put myself through some of the recording tomorrow. It looks all over but who knows- what's the bet  for a 89th winner for us and it drags on to penalties while we only have semi fit players. Off for my medication

Edited May 18, 2021 by Chapelhall chap
spelling error

[Mr November]

I feel for anyone who watched that as a neutral, not exactly a vintage game of football. 

Really disappointed with the result and performance tonight. I don't think Morton are a great team but they were undoubtedly the better team, especially in the second half. Losing Paton, Kerr and Connell for tonight was a massive blow, all three were crucial to our recent good form both individually and in terms of how they allow the rest of the team to play. We really struggled without them tonight. Our midfield, Turner aside, couldn't get into the game at all, which is perhaps to be expected given our midfield consisted of wingers, strikers and full backs all night. I'm not sure why we consistently punted long balls up to McKay and Gallagher when it was clear Morton's defence were winning every high ball. We were unfortunate with injuries again, especially in positions where we don't have much cover, but Murray's substitutions didn't work at all tonight. Why bring Robert and Roy on for McKay and Walker when we have a more defensive minded player like Ritchie on the bench who can fill in somewhere defensively?

Tiredness was a massive issue in the second half. We never looked like scoring and were very much holding on at the end. The goal was coming but ultimately it comes from poor decision making from Thomson to concede the corner and then Robert and someone else not paying attention at the short corner. It's certainly still all to play for on Friday but I do feel we had to at least get a draw tonight to win overall. 

On a better note, being back at a game was brilliant. It initially felt quite strange, queueing to get in isn't the norm at Airdrie, but being back in the stadium and watching a game live was a great feeling. Once the game started it didn't even feel that different, perhaps because it was a poor game and I'm used to a stand with a fairly spread out crowd, but despite the result it was still great just being back at a game. Hopefully next season we're all back as I can't go another season of Pixellot. I think the thing I've missed most is the general abuse and vitriol you get at the most innocuous things. Booing Morton onto the pitch was a particular highlight, you don't get nonsense like that on the streams. 

[TONTROOPER]

1 hour ago, Ravelin said:

Are you serious? Both sides were seriously rank rotten, just that Morton weren't quite as rank as Airdrie for the last 10 mins, and I can't believe I actually wasted an evening by watching it. The only slight glimmer of entertainment was watching Lyon's theatrical moaning every time a decision went against him.

It's not over yet, but Morton will certainly be happy going into the second leg at home with a lead. Might give watching it a miss though, spending the evening clearing up the dog turds in the garden in pouring rain will probably be more enjoyable.

Mate......at least Montrose played football....fek knows what your guys thought they were playing.

[madton]

23 minutes ago, Mr November said:

I feel for anyone who watched that as a neutral, not exactly a vintage game of football. 

Really disappointed with the result and performance tonight. I don't think Morton are a great team but they were undoubtedly the better team, especially in the second half. Losing Paton, Kerr and Connell for tonight was a massive blow, all three were crucial to our recent good form both individually and in terms of how they allow the rest of the team to play. We really struggled without them tonight. Our midfield, Turner aside, couldn't get into the game at all, which is perhaps to be expected given our midfield consisted of wingers, strikers and full backs all night. I'm not sure why we consistently punted long balls up to McKay and Gallagher when it was clear Morton's defence were winning every high ball. We were unfortunate with injuries again, especially in positions where we don't have much cover, but Murray's substitutions didn't work at all tonight. Why bring Robert and Roy on for McKay and Walker when we have a more defensive minded player like Ritchie on the bench who can fill in somewhere defensively?

Tiredness was a massive issue in the second half. We never looked like scoring and were very much holding on at the end. The goal was coming but ultimately it comes from poor decision making from Thomson to concede the corner and then Robert and someone else not paying attention at the short corner. It's certainly still all to play for on Friday but I do feel we had to at least get a draw tonight to win overall. 

On a better note, being back at a game was brilliant. It initially felt quite strange, queueing to get in isn't the norm at Airdrie, but being back in the stadium and watching a game live was a great feeling. Once the game started it didn't even feel that different, perhaps because it was a poor game and I'm used to a stand with a fairly spread out crowd, but despite the result it was still great just being back at a game. Hopefully next season we're all back as I can't go another season of Pixellot. I think the thing I've missed most is the general abuse and vitriol you get at the most innocuous things. Booing Morton onto the pitch was a particular highlight, you don't get nonsense like that on the streams. 

Thought the booing for us when we didn't dare give you the ball back when your player went down (again) was a particular highlight.

We had the ball in your final third, absolute no chance you were getting the ball back when we had it in the first place when the ref stopped play.

[The Ghost of B A R P]

Wonder where wee Turner will be playing next season. I’m realistic enough to accept it will probably be nowhere near Cappielow, but you’d love to see it. Plenty of ability there and plenty of room to kick on.

[Dunning1874]

It's certainly not job done as I can't see Airdrie being so toothless going forward again on Friday when they have to chase the game, but playing so badly and still taking a lead into the second leg is great. What a ball that was from McLean.

Assuming Jacobs is out then can we please have a midfield three of McGinn, Lyon and Colville so we never see Blues again. As others have said Airdrie tired awfully in the last 20 minutes there so I hope MacPherson is on the ball with subs on Friday to be ready to exploit that. If we must have a focus on an alleged physical presence then we only need one of Muirhead and Salkeld in the starting XI anyway - Muirhead is the less ineffective option for me - but for the love of god get McGuffie running at their full backs if they tire.

[TONTROOPER]

2 hours ago, TheGoon said:

 Toe’s far from over 

 

2 hours ago, TheGoon said:

 

Goon!....please tell me yer no losing a toe!

[TONTROOPER]

6 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

It's certainly not job done as I can't see Airdrie being so toothless going forward again on Friday when they have to chase the game, but playing so badly and still taking a lead into the second leg is great. What a ball that was from McLean.

Assuming Jacobs is out then can we please have a midfield three of McGinn, Lyon and Colville so we never see Blues again. As others have said Airdrie tired awfully in the last 20 minutes there so I hope MacPherson is on the ball with subs on Friday to be ready to exploit that. If we must have a focus on an alleged physical presence then we only need one of Muirhead and Salkeld in the starting XI anyway - Muirhead is the less ineffective option for me - but for the love of god get McGuffie running at their full backs if they tire.

I'm genuinely conflicted regarding Salkeld.....the boy has something....I'm just not convinced its anything to do with football.

[TONTROOPER]

11 minutes ago, The Ghost of B A R P said:

Wonder where wee Turner will be playing next season. I’m realistic enough to accept it will probably be nowhere near Cappielow, but you’d love to see it. Plenty of ability there and plenty of room to kick on.

Tell me more Ghost...is THAT Turner related to OUR Turners from bygone days?

[tonup9]

Fair result for us,could have been even more than one nil,roll on Friday

[port-ton]

This is such a bizarre morton team and season unlike many other in my time supporting them. Despite being a relegation threatened team I genuinely like our defence, goalkeeper and holding midfielders and would happily keep them if we stay up. It feels rare to be this bad yet not particularly panicking everytime our defence is called in to action like with the majority of all the other shit teams morton have had.

I've just never seen a team so utterly toothless in attack. It's not like we play with a tactic of 11 men behind the ball and try to win with a set piece or anything. We genuinely try to attack most games I've seen but the quality is just so pathetic that we don't create chances or score goals despite having about 17 attackers on our books at the start of the season.

Been an extremely hard watch every week, especially paying £14 or whatever to watch it on a laptop knowing there's going to be little to no excitement most weeks.

I do think Gus has made a wise tactical move dropping our more attacking "flair" players against league one sides as we weren't creating anything with them in the starting side anyway and that's two games in a row they've made a difference against a tiring defence.

[TONTROOPER]

19 minutes ago, port-ton said:

 I genuinely like our  goalkeeper. 


 

 

[TONTROOPER]

1 minute ago, TONTROOPER said:

 

screwed up....meant to say....we have Fox for 2 games.

[The Ghost of B A R P]

4 hours ago, TONTROOPER said:

Tell me more Ghost...is THAT Turner related to OUR Turners from bygone days?

Son of, as far as I’m aware.

Totally different type of player... but a pretty good player, I think.