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The Mo v Clyde


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Carbon copy of the Dumbarton game, that, only with an added soft penalty missed (karmic justice, probably) and bafflement at the inconsistency of the referee. We don't seem to know how to put these games away any more, and it's frustrating to watch. Think we might be past the tipping point of looking back at teams behind us than the ones in front.....

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Well that was shite yet again.  We’ve been pretty unimpressive (Falkirk game aside) since Xmas and can’t help but think it’s down to shoehorning Gardyne into the team.  He’s clearly a level above but SP has had to change how we play to accommodate him and it all feels a bit clunky.  Went with what looked like a bizarre 4-2-4 today .. which might have been intended as a 4-2-1-2 but wasn’t. That said we should’ve won but again but have forgotten how to score .. the less said about CJ’s penalty effort the better (he’d be the last man on the park I’d trust with a pen). SPs subs were odd as well .. CJ should’ve been hooked before Eli. CJ then getting hooked for Bally to play centre forward .. . and Gardyne off for Brown were truly WTF moments.  As it turned out no real damage done as Falkirk lost and QP drew but if we do make the playoffs things will need to improve. 

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Another frustrating Montrose performance. Played well in first half, forced Parry in to 3 or 4 good saves, including the penalty. Think the ref went with out shouts from behind the goal to award it, not sure if it was handball and he certainly couldn’t have seen it from where he was standing. 

Second half was so flat. Not sure of the substitutions that took off our attacking threat. Red card never helped things. Not sure if match coverage would clear it up, appeared that Clyde player had a hold of Lyons’ foot as he went to get the ball and ref saw it as a stamp?

It seems now that links park is a place where teams are happy to leave with a point, frustrating for us but just a few years ago that would never have been the case. Big game next week to extend the gap between ourselves and QP 

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6 minutes ago, notsofedupendie said:the less said about CJ’s penalty effort the better (he’d be the last man on the park I’d trust with a pen). SPs subs were odd as well .. CJ should’ve been hooked before Eli. CJ then getting hooked for Bally to play centre forward .. . and Gardyne off for Brown were truly WTF moments.  

Agree on all counts. Not sure who else should have stepped up to take the penalty though, maybe Eli to get him off the mark? As much as I think Brown could turn out to be a good player I think this level is above him currently. 

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13 minutes ago, broomiesniper said:

Agree on all counts. Not sure who else should have stepped up to take the penalty though, maybe Eli to get him off the mark? As much as I think Brown could turn out to be a good player I think this level is above him currently. 

From behind the goal it looked like Gardyne and Milne were willing to take the penalty but CJ had the ball in his hand and had decided he was to be the taker.  I think he's an instinctive scorer and should not have been allowed to take the penalty.  Getting Eli off the mark would not be a mistake.

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3 minutes ago, MO7S said:

From behind the goal it looked like Gardyne and Milne were willing to take the penalty but CJ had the ball in his hand and had decided he was to be the taker.  I think he's an instinctive scorer and should not have been allowed to take the penalty.  Getting Eli off the mark would not be a mistake.

As soon as the penalty was awarded CJ was running to get the ball. He’s been scoring recently so guess he felt confident. I’d have kept Milne away from it after his attempt earlier this season. 

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Montrose played more direct than they have against us in the past, with the 442 v 442 they didn't really have as much play in the middle of the park as normal. We'd also clearly marked out the threat in wide areas with Livingstone and McAllister shielding the full-backs. I think most people prefer Cuddihy in midfield but he's been good at right-back more often than not in this league and he had a good battle with Lyons. Docherty did okay against Gardyne but he caused us huge problems when he moved off the line.

That more direct approach caused us problems because Page/Rumsby lost nearly every header against the Montrose pair, and were rolled a couple of times. One of those saw Simpson fire in a shot that Parry saved superbly. He had a couple of other good stops before the penalty, which in itself was probably a fairly routine save actually. It's good to get that monkey off our back; at times it seemed like Currie and Mitchell were deliberately diving the wrong way. The other big moment in the early stages was a dreadful tackle from Gomis; a full set of studs planted on Simpson's shin. I can only assume the referee thought there wasn't enough force in the tackle but it looked a certain red from our view.

I'm sure our goal will appear on Twitter at some point from our camera but it was nicely worked; a good flick over the Montrose player's head from Splaine, Livingstone riding a challenge from an unusually rubbish Ballantyne and then a cross that McAllister absolutely battered into the net with his head over the top of the opposing full-back. We had maybe not had a clear chance but Montrose being so open gave us time to play a bit of football and Tade gave us a fairly immobile target, but a target that the ball stuck to nonetheless.

It's frustrating given what went before and after that we couldn't hand on for very long but Gardyne popped up on the left hand side and appeared to fire in a wayward shot that was knocked into the net. Before half-time they could have probably scored again but for another good Parry save.

The second half was fairly drab; Gardyne struck the post with a wonderful effort and we had a goal ruled out for offside and Cunningham stuck one just past from distance. I didn't see the red card at all as it came after an initial challenge had fallen nicely for us and we were away down the right. After that, McAllister had a great chance blocked but it was Montrose who spurned a series of decent openings. Arguably the red card brought them back to life.

Parry was all over the place last week but he was back to his usual this, a fantastically solid presence. If we survive this season then he'll have played as much a part as DGW.

Cuddihy makes such a difference just by having an all round game. The centre halves were awful in the first half but quite a bit better in the second. They benefitted from Montrose removing both of their strikers. You'll never convince me that Elsdon shouldn't be starting although I'm not convinced he's good enough either. Gomis, Splaine, Livingstone did more good than bad. Love only offers running and time wasting, today more centrally he took up some good positions but was caught on the ball time and time again.

Tade's influence (undeniably positive) was perhaps further exaggerated by the first five minutes of Jones' appearance. I think he's earned another start next week, hopefully with Cunningham or Jamieson off him. We need to be moving heaven and earth to get McAllister back next season; he's got some flaws in his game but we desperately need that type of athletic, aggressive player, he's absolutely made for this level. 

Overall, two good points at Links Park this season. We're a very limited team but that display today is far more recognisable for this team than the garbage last week. We haven't lost an away game in the league since mid-October which is absolutely equally impressive and baffling.

On the referee, Graham Beaton has fair vanished from SPFL football in the last couple of years. I suppose that could be for any number of reasons, hopefully nothing illness related. I remember him as being a decent but not great referee. If he's going to produce displays like that then he'll not be at this level for very long. I made it five bookings for dissent?! 

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14 hours ago, broomiesniper said:

Red card never helped things. Not sure if match coverage would clear it up, appeared that Clyde player had a hold of Lyons’ foot as he went to get the ball and ref saw it as a stamp?

I was right in front of it, Blair jumped over the Clyde player who didn’t make any movement over the supposed ‘stamp’ until he saw ref running towards him. I guess it’s justice done as our penalty clearly came off his chest

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