Three things we learned as Morton held in Accies stalemate

A plethora of missed chances saw Dougie Imrie left scratching his head as to how they never claimed all three points and instead forced into settling for a second successive stalemate.

Morton kept Charlie Albinson busy (Image: Alex Craig)

Ton were at their scintillating best in a potent first half performance that had John Rankin’s Accies side on the ropes for long spells, with Imrie’s men pressing the life out of a rather fragile looking outfit.

But the goal that Imrie desired wasn’t for coming as both sides went into the break on level terms.

Michael Garrity, Owen Moffat and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas will be losing sleep about the opportunities they spurned, with former Celtic kid Moffat blasting the best of them all over the bar from close range.

This gave Accies a second half lifeline as they threatened to spoil the party – but here’s three things we learned as Ton held on for a second successive point and clean sheet of the season.

Relentlessness

Morton were right at Hamilton from the off (Image: Alex Craig)

Imrie’s spoken about taking his side in a new direction for much of their pre-season campaign. But you can still see shades of Imrie the player in his slick new passing machine.

For all Ton are looking good at playing through the thirds. Off the ball they’re still not shy to let their opposition know that they’re in a game.

Wave after wave of pressing saw Accies struggle to get the ball out of their own defensive third for much of the first half.

Despite having two strikers of the stature and the ilk of Nikolay Todorov and Oli Shaw, they couldn’t make it stick.

Arron Lyall and Owen Moffat may seem like flair players to the eye, but they’re not shy in sticking a foot in and more times than not coming out with the ball, as Jamie Barjonas and Barry Maguire soon found out on a torrid afternoon for the pair.

Couple that with the sheer tenacity of Cammy Ballantyne in the right back berth, you can see that Ton aren’t afraid to roll their sleeves up and do things the ugly way if necessary.

JET’s taking flight

JET will be looking to take one of his chances sooner rather than later (Image: Alex Craig)

Special mention must go to Michael Garrity for a brilliant performance at the top end of the pitch. But JET was a man who got bums off seats more often than not.

He may no longer be the player you saw coming in off the wing at the likes of Ipswich, QPR and Bristol City, but he knows how to lead the line and make a defender look silly.

He was unfortunate again not to score inside the first ten minutes of this tie, shooting agonisingly wide under pressure from Sean McGinty.

But fans were rubbing their eyes in disbelief later in the half after he was fouled on the halfway line before keeping the ball under his control on the deck, squirming it around himself to then get back up and fleece four Accies players of their entry money before setting up Moffat to shoot wide.

That was one of a few magical moments – but you reckon that he’ll make the most of the free week coming up to get even sharper under the eye of Dougie Imrie because if there’s a man who’ll get a 75-plus minute tune out of the front man, it’s the Ton chief.

Missed opportunities

Michael Garrity went close more than once (Image: Alex Craig)

Imrie doesn’t need told that his side should’ve been out of sight against Accies. In fact, he’ll probably admit that he’s never seen as dominant and as comfortable a performance in his tenure from one of his sides.

But they just can’t put the ball in the back of the net.

Michael Garrity saw three guilt edged chances go begging, Owen Moffat could’ve had a hat-trick of his own.

JET blasted wide from close range well before Ali Crawford stung the palms of Charlie Albinson.

One positive is that Ton were easily able to create far more chances against Accies (nine) than they did against Partick (eight).

But out of a total of 17 chances only five have been on target over the course of two games – giving Imrie plenty of thought over the coming days as he looks to get back to winning ways and build on what is an unbeaten start to the league this season, sitting one point off the promotion play-offs and four points off the top of the pile.

Ton are off this weekend but face Livingston who sit two points above them a week on Saturday before facing second placed side Falkirk in three weeks’ time.