30/07/2007

St. Mirren 1 - 0 Morton

St. Mirren 1 - Corcoran (37)
Morton 0


Attendance : 4,595

St. Mirren retained the Renfrewshire Cup after a pretty uninspiring match at Love Street.

St. Mirren's Marc Corcoran scored the only goal of the match with a left foot shot across Lee Robinson from inside the box. The goal came after a comedy of errors by the Morton defence - after Brady's shot crashed off the bar Kevin Finlayson allowed the ball to bounce over his head instead of clearing. The ball fell to Corcoran whos tame shot went straight to Harding who's very poor clearance went right back to Corcoran who finished at the second time of asking.

Morton's best chance of the first half fell to trialist Jani Sturm who raced on to a ball over the top but his attempted lob landed the wrong side of the post (pictured - courtesy of http://www.tontastic.com/ - click to enlarge) .

Alex Walker had a goal disallowed in the second half and Sturm had a couple of efforts that St. Mirren's goalkeeper dealt with fairly comfortably. Apart from those efforts Morton rarely threatened.

Another interesting feature of the match was McInally's restructuring of the team at half time. Weatherson was pushed up front and we brought on Jay Shields and Kieran McAnespie to change from a 3-5-1-1 to a 4-4-2. Ths also saw Jim McAlister move to a central role with McAnespie on the left hand side. This change of personnel, their positions and the team formation is quite concerning with a week to go until the season starts as it suggests Jim McInally doesn't know what formation he will go with or who his best first XI are and where they should play. I especially don't think Alex Walker is suited to the centre half role and neither is MacGregor suited to the defensive midfield role.

Hopefully come next Saturday we will have made a few signings and Jim has a definite idea of how we will line up.

Morton Team

1. Robinson - 7
2. Weatherson - 7 (No number. Graham - 85 mins)
3. MacGregor - 5 (14. McAnespie - 46 mins - 7)
4. Harding - 6 (16. Keenan - 78 mins)
5. Greacen - 6
6. Finlayson - 4 (15. Shields [trialist] - 46 mins - 7)
7. Millar - 6
8. Stevenson - 7 (12. Templeman - 72 mins)
9. Sturm [trialist] - 7
10. Walker - 6
11. McAlister - 7

Unused Subs

17. Coakley [trialist]
18. Gildbride
20. McGurn

Sunday Mail Match Report - http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/sport/football/tm_headline=buddies-fare-well-as-mark-hits-ton&method=full&objectid=19537199&siteid=64736-name_page.html

Tele' Match Report - http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=sport&id=9207

Quotes from McInally - http://www.gmfc.net/club-news/news-view.asp?id=195 & http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=sport&id=9206

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