Montrose - 13th July 2024

[Fawlty Towers]

100% success rate for me so I can now announce my retirement from starting match threads!

Usual sort of thing for the opening game going by recenet years. Some good stuff and some stuff to tidy up. My one observation was that today we looked more balanced over the game in terms of danger down the flanks - Willimams/Chalmers on the right and Milne/Fitzpatrick on the left. Hopefully this will make it harder for teams to defend against us when if they closed down one side last season it really inhibited us.

[HeWearsNumber9]

20 minutes ago, Third Lanark said:

I actually thought Stanway was a bit too lightweight a couple of times and appeared to be looking for a foul a bit too easily but I’m probably being overly critical 

I thought he did well in breaking up play and was first to every loose ball. It will be interesting to see who Doolan fancies as his best starting midfield 3. When stanway, mcbeth, turner, Robinson, Crawford and banzo are all fully fit and vying for just 3 spots between 6 of them. 

[sandy]

Pleased to hear Turner did well, he’s a cracking player who can create opportunities 

[HeWearsNumber9]

3 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I prefer Turner in no 8 rather than no 10 role when he can see what's  in front of him. One positive for me today was how comfortable O' Reilly looked at at both LCB & LB. Final comment- baffled by Doolan's 3 subs at 2-1. Overconfidence?

All 3 who came on did miss out on the 2 friendly games, a case of just giving minutes I guess, although certainly risky all things considered. 

[chunky jag]

3-2 definitely flattered Montrose, 3/4-0 would have been a more realistic reflection of the balance of play.

 

nice to sed Turner back but i dont like him in the ten, he’s better coming onto a game, picking ball up off centre half and driving us over the half way line starting moves, I’d rather see robinson behind graham.

 

thought milne and fitzy were good, dan o’reilly was my motm, used the ball really well, solid as a rock, quick into challenges, he must start every week. 
 

i worry about a few things, the 3 signings we clearly need - competitoon for graham, right back, and competition for mitch, but i know we’ll sort that.

 

we have too many centre halves and i worry dools gets decision paralysis about which ones to play. Dont know if i agree with moving macbeth out of centre back either, he was best player latter half of last season at centre back.

 

liked look of chalmers, particularly first half, definitely has a touch of the stevie lawless about him. 
 

stanway, i’ll be polite and say i dont see it, at all. 
 

get a few signings in, keep everyone fit, and i do believe we’ll be in amongst it to win the league this year. 

[Auld Jag]

Imo we played with just a bit more intensity than a pre season game. Turner deserved motm.

Going past the Star and Garter pub i noticed quite a few red and yellow flags, wasn't until i got closer i realised they were Spain flags. 

[exiledjag]

Interesting statistics - Jags -  51% possession & 21 goal attempts versus Montrose - 49% possession and 3 goal attempts.

All of our goals were scored from inside the 6 yard box and with the possible exception of thr first goal (Muirhead) I thought the others were a bit on the scrappy side.

What happened to  Crawford? He wasn't in the first 11 nor the bench. Is he injured?

I have read comments about Turner and Chalmers but not about Mackay or Ashcroft. How did they perform when they came on?

 

[lady-isobel-barnett]

7 minutes ago, exiledjag said:

I have read comments about Turner and Chalmers but not about Mackay or Ashcroft. How did they perform when they came on?

I'm in the JH Stand so I reckon those in the John Lambie will be better placed to comment about Ashcroft. MacKay didn't do much tho' he came in from the right wing to a more central position on occasions. Possibly unfair to make much of a judgement re MacKay as the bulk of the play later on was down the left flank. Milne and later O'Reilly were excellent support to Fitzpatrick. If we had scored late on I'm fairly certain it would've come from work down the left side.

[jaggy]

I thought Milne was excellent today but still prone to silly yellow cards when chasing back. He was my MoM. I also thought O’Reilly looked comfortable at LB when Harry went off. 

Fitzy grew into the game and it was interesting to see that he lasted 90 mins & still looked fairly fresh, unlike in previous years. He put some decent balls in the box and probably should have scored late on but elected not to shoot early.

Although we had 21 goal attempts we had countless balls across the box that never found another man. I reckon we could easily have scored 7 or 8 today if we’d been more clinical.

The biggest worry was the ease with which we conceded. I don’t recall Mitch making a save

[thornwoodjag]

4 hours ago, chunky jag said:

3-2 definitely flattered Montrose, 3/4-0 would have been a more realistic reflection of the balance of play.

 

nice to sed Turner back but i dont like him in the ten, he’s better coming onto a game, picking ball up off centre half and driving us over the half way line starting moves, I’d rather see robinson behind graham.

 

thought milne and fitzy were good, dan o’reilly was my motm, used the ball really well, solid as a rock, quick into challenges, he must start every week. 
 

i worry about a few things, the 3 signings we clearly need - competitoon for graham, right back, and competition for mitch, but i know we’ll sort that.

 

we have too many centre halves and i worry dools gets decision paralysis about which ones to play. Dont know if i agree with moving macbeth out of centre back either, he was best player latter half of last season at centre back.

 

liked look of chalmers, particularly first half, definitely has a touch of the stevie lawless about him. 
 

stanway, i’ll be polite and say i dont see it, at all. 
 

get a few signings in, keep everyone fit, and i do believe we’ll be in amongst it to win the league this year. 

stanway, i’ll be polite and say i dont see it, at all. 
 

 

 

WOW

[Duke Gekantawa]

Their second goal came just after we had made wholesale changes to the right of defence, a consequence of treating the game as a friendly. It was very well worked and taken. Ashcroft seemed to back off too much when his opponent ran at him (an issue with most defenders at this level it has to be said).

[jagfox]

More positives than negatives for me yesterday.

We were really on the front foot and should have had a few goals before Milne got beat then the Mo player set up their forward for a decent finish. 

Heads didn't drop and we got level before half-time.

Second half we kept at it and went ahead.

Then a few changes and Montrose produced another decent goal with Gardyne taking Ashcroft out of the play to setup their young sub for an accomplished finish.

Kept going and got a winner we deserved overall.

Turner was very good for me and Milne and Fitzpatrick weren't far behind.

Ashcroft looks like he'd win a world championship at head tennis and was involved for the winner knocking on a another good header from Milne on the other side of the 6 yard box.

He is maybe on the slow side but will win most duels in the air.

Chalmers looked quite classy and like Fitzy had licence to drift inside and have a dig when the opportunity arrived.

Subtle changes evident possibly due to the change of personnel certainly on the right hand side.

Mackay didn't do too much on his debut but wasn't far away and will get more into things as the season progresses.

We certainly have some great presence now at set-pieces with Muirhead, Graham, Milne, O'Reilly and Ashcroft all imposing figures for this division. Once Kyle gets into the swing of his set-pieces we could really profit from an area that was lacking last season.

TL; DR Early days but a lot more positives than negatives for me. 

[Albert's Ghost]

19 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

Their second goal came just after we had made wholesale changes to the right of defence, a consequence of treating the game as a friendly. It was very well worked and taken. Ashcroft seemed to back off too much when his opponent ran at him (an issue with most defenders at this level it has to be said).

I think that's harsh.  Ashcroft was drawn in and taken out by a well-worked one-two, orchestrated by our old friend Gardyne.  Hopefully that's the last we'll see of that wee bassa!

[Jaggernaut]

24 minutes ago, Duke Gekantawa said:

Their second goal came just after we had made wholesale changes to the right of defence, a consequence of treating the game as a friendly. It was very well worked and taken. Ashcroft seemed to back off too much when his opponent ran at him (an issue with most defenders at this level it has to be said).

Just let's hope he's not a graduate of the Grant Murray school of defending.

[jagfox]

Just to add it is great to see the depth in the squad at this stage of the season. No discernable drop off in quality of play when subs came on.

Robinson seemed lively. Banzo dictated the pace of the game as he is prone to do. I appreciate that can be seen as a negative by fans.

Intesting that Graham stayed on and Ricco never got a few minutes at the end. Like Ado, Brian kept going so fair play to his fitness at his age. Puts some younger players across the league to shame and must be a great influence on and off the Park.

[lady-isobel-barnett]

2 hours ago, jagfox said:

Just to add it is great to see the depth in the squad at this stage of the season. No discernable drop off in quality of play when subs came on.

Robinson seemed lively. Banzo dictated the pace of the game as he is prone to do. I appreciate that can be seen as a negative by fans.

Intesting that Graham stayed on and Ricco never got a few minutes at the end. Like Ado, Brian kept going so fair play to his fitness at his age. Puts some younger players across the league to shame and must be a great influence on and off the Park.

I realise we would need to bring in at least one other striker, but could that be we don't want to cup tie him if we plan to send him out on loan? More realistically but on the same subject, Hibs playing Megwa yesterday might suggest they've not as yet decided his immediate future.

Edited July 14, 2024 by lady-isobel-barnett

[JAG1970]

4 hours ago, jagfox said:

 

We certainly have some great presence now at set-pieces with Muirhead, Graham, Milne, O'Reilly and Ashcroft all imposing figures for this division. Once Kyle gets into the swing of his set-pieces we could really profit from an area that was lacking last season.

Was thinking the same. Add in McBeth too and we haven’t had such a range of threats for several seasons. OReilly and Ashcroft headers proving two assists yesterday. 

[jaggy]

I maybe missed it but does anyone know why Crawford wasn’t in the squad?

[Albert's Ghost]

4 minutes ago, jaggy said:

I maybe missed it but does anyone know why Crawford wasn’t in the squad?

Minor injury

[HeWearsNumber9]

As a few have mentioned it is a huge bonus to see the team does have a good physical presence this year. Something I think that has been an issue for us at times over the years is we’re a bit light weight. With Aero, Ashcroft, mcbeth, graham, waz, and Milne all being aggressive players and good in the air. Should help us through games with a battle aspect to them. Importantly with turners delivery we should also now be scoring far more set pieces. 2 of our goals came from corners via Ashcroft and O’reilly headers. Hope both players I just mentioned will chip in with 3-5 goals each across the season.

[Albert's Ghost]

Dan will score more than 5

[Jaggernaut]

2 hours ago, Albert's Ghost said:

Dan will score more than 5

Oh, reilly?

[HeWearsNumber9]

4 hours ago, Albert's Ghost said:

Dan will score more than 5

Here’s hoping! I wouldn’t bet against it.