Kmcalpin

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.

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.

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.

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. After a brief period of respite, following our great win over a very very poor Ross County, I thought he had won me over, but last night convinced me otherwise. Not a one off disaster but it resulted from a combination of serious errors. I agree though its too late to change now. The thing that concerns me most is that he doesn't seem to be learning from his mistakes. Most of us are no managers, but even we could see a number of managerial failures and bad decisions. To be fair though the players were not blameless.

Despite Killie having more strikers than us; and playing a game less than us since KVV signed; and KVV being more unfit than Vale, he's already started and played more minutes than him. What does that tell us? SK was reluctant to rotate the squad despite being in an intense run of games.

You have to have a big defence to match giant strikers and tough characters to win challenges. If you do that you nullify the opposition and the get the ball down and play the way you want.

Yes, Morton's performance last night had "Accies" stamped all over it. They made us play a game that suited them and dragged us into a physical scrap. SK hadn't a clue as to how to change it.

Good call Grizzly. You can add Vale to that list too as he's looked good in his 2 cameos. As always Aberdeen will prove a hard physical test

I agree to a point Tam, but Dougie Imrie is hardly what you'd call an experienced manager but he had our tactics and set up well and truly sussed.

I'm going to defend Kelly here, as I have done in the past. Is he short on confidence - yes. Does he make blunders like tonight when he fumbled the ball - yes. Is Oxborough any better - who knows. Why doesn't SK pick him? As someone said on P & B tonight at the first goal, Spittal made a hash of it and the wrong man was marking Oakley. So, it wasn't all down to Kelly. Kelly isn't the biggest keeper in the world and has never been good at crosses/set pieces. We knew that when we signed him. So, we need to field big central defenders who can dominate in the air to protect him, which we don't. We also need to minimise aerial balls into our box, which we don't. If we want a keeper who is good in the air then we don't pick him.

Absolutely. Missed opportunities. Our substitutions tonight smacked of desperation. I would have thought that Vale could have been given more gametime and yes, surely Nicholson has 20 minutes in him? Maybe in a minority of one here but I don't think McGinn and O'Donnell should both play in the centre. I'd keep McGinn as he's been a steadying influence there and, as tonight proved, we need more muscle and height in there. According to SK, O'Donnell was touch and go anyway for tonight due to family circumstances.

A game where character will be required, if we are to take anything from it. Changes need to be made to the starting line up.

Agreed. but I think many did. Maybe Tuesday lulled many of us into a false sense of security. Before the match many would have anticipated it'd be a real battle and it was. Morton have a big strong physical team and they played to those strengths. A good few thought SK would rotate the squad more giving more gametime to some newer players and rest regulars ie when we were 3-0 up on Tuesday and cruising - that didn't happen. We looked jaded tonight. A few questioned the inclusion of Miller and O'Donnell for different reasons and they both started. The team may have been more talented than Morton but lacked their will to win and character. Many mistakes made before kick off and also afterwards. Yes, we have no right to beat a Championship team in the cup, but thats now 2 years in succession we've lost. We do have the right to expect the team, if they are going to lose, to go down fighting but they didn't - they went down without a whimper.

Agree with Smiddy and Villageman. SK is going nowhere for the time being but should/will be replaced at the end of his contract in a few months time.

We should have taken the opportunity, when 3 0 up and cruising, to make more changes. This would have given fringe/ new players more game time and given others more of a rest. A few of us said this at the time. An opportunity spurned.

That's it for me. The team lacks character, especially in midfield. Talent alone will only get you so far. For starters, a keeper, any keeper, should not be captain. We lack an Ally Mauchlen or Colin O'Neill type in the middle. Any big physical striker, however agricultural can upset our rearguard.

Correct. Wrong judgement call.

He's a Championship jobber; thats his level. Physical enough to make our backline look poor. He'll get found out.

Physical honest endeavour and aggression will only get them so far. That was good enough to beat us though.

Ah Vale again.

Very much so. A lot of bad decisions off the pitch and we look to have been ill prepared. We were beaten at 7.15 tonight.

A good summing up.

Ah some changes!

Starks Park II Well that's it for another year. Pathetic.