By Friday night the events from the previous Saturday's match have usually paled into insignificance but this week this is certainly not the case. The events surrounding Chris Templeman's disallowed goal continue to cast a shadow over tomorrows game.Morton have threatened to appeal Jim McInally's and Martin Clark's touch line bans and then decided not to due to the £1000 cost. According to InverclydeNow this means that Morton's dugout will be empty for the two matches following Stirling's visit to Cappielow. Some may see this as an advantage tomorrow and a disadvantage in the Queen Of The South and Buckie Thistle matches; personally I don't. In my opinion any manager worth his salt has already used a weeks training to prepare his players for Saturday's fixture. Last week I watched a documentary about Jose Mourinho in which he was so confident that he had adequately prepared his team for a Saturday that he would give no team talk before the game. Instead he would allow one of his players to say a few words. Don't get me wrong Jim McInally is no Jose Mourinho but I don't buy into this garbage about managers not being animated enough on the touchlines. For me a manager's work is done on the training field and in the minds of his players, shouting and bawling has no other affect on players other than to worry and unsettle them. So, for me, the management team's touchline ban is irrelevant. I'm sure lots of you will disagree, although maybe not in this case as Jim is usually reserved on the sidelines anyway.
I hope that the players use last week's injustice to spur them on against Stirling Albion - who we know very well from last season - rather than dwell on the point lost away to the league leaders. The Binos will put up a good fight but I think the players will use the Hamilton match positively and because of that I can't see anything other than a home win.
Team News:
Morton: David MacGregor and Lee Robinson are both still out. Kieran McAnespie will play with strapping on his thumb. Morton's only doubt is over Scott McLaughlin who was injured in training. *Update* according to www.gmfc.net Scott is definitely out.
Stirling: Sean Roycroft is out but Stewart Devine and Paul Murphy are close to full fitness and could return.
My Prediction: Morton 2 - 0 Stirling Albion
http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=2&id=16671
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/7074141.stm
http://www.inverclydenow.com/news-detail4.asp?ID=858
http://www.gmfc.net/club-news/news-view.asp?id=240
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