THE Morton news headlines may have been dominated by matters off the park for the last 24-and-a-bit hours, but for Dougie Imrie, all thoughts must now turn to Saturday's clash with Airdrie.
It's a bit early to be discussing six-pointers at either end of the table at this early stage of the season, but after starting the campaign with three draws, Morton’s two recent defeats, to Falkirk and Queen’s Park, have turned an indifferent start into a poor one, with Ton now sitting in the relegation play-off spot.
However, only three goals separate them from last season’s promotion chasers, Raith Rovers, who currently occupy the position at the foot of the table.
Sitting only a point above Morton, though, are Airdrie, another of last season’s challengers struggling to live up to last season’s high standards.
The Diamonds are sitting only a point above our own favourites in eighth place and Morton must be targeting three points from such a fixture.
We had looked upon last weekend as a potential source of points to kick-start the season. But after an insipid performance, Morton left Lesser Hampden empty-handed.
Though Dougie Imrie was publicly bullish in defence of his side, I suspect that behind closed doors it was a very different story, as Morton never looked like taking anything from a game in which they didn’t really lay a glove on their hosts, only coming close when Spiders’ Callum Ferrie parried Niall McGinn’s effort and Owen Moffat curled the follow-up wide of the Queens stopper’s left hand post.
Though Dom Thomas’s winner on the cusp of half time took a massive deflection, there couldn’t have been many complaints from the Morton camp to go in behind at the break.
And things didn’t get much better when the teams re-appeared for the second period, with Queens striking the frame of Ryan Mullen’s goal three times in the opening fifteen minutes of a torrid second half.
Sadly, Morton’s contribution as an attacking threat wasn’t great, with the now common wholesale changes to the forward line again failing to bear fruit and an Aaron Lyall effort from distance being their only effort of note in the second period.
Though I’m at pains to go into the subject of Morton’s striking options every week, the failure of Imrie’s new attacking signings to adapt as yet is becoming an increasing concern for most observers. Imrie I suspect is included, when you consider how much he’s chopping and changing in that department.
Following the news yesterday of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas's arrest, and with all of Imrie's summer signings having come from comparatively lower leagues or reaching the autumn stages of their careers, solving this conundrum isn’t a task I envy of the Morton boss.
But with the loan window closing at the end of the month, time is running out on one of his avenues to find a solution.
Airdrie, on the other hand, haven’t had the best of times either, and have suffered similar issues to Ton.
They've lost goalkeeper Josh Rae to St. Johnstone, talisman Nikolay Todorov to local rivals Hamilton, Charlie Telfer to Ross County, Callum Fordyce to big-spending Raith Rovers and of course Aaron Lyall and Cammy Ballantyne to their weekend hosts.
And that's before you factor in Hibs loanee Kanayo Megwa returning to Easter Road at the end of last season, before going back out on loan to Partick this week.
Despite those losses though, Airdrie's season started well, coming through their League Cup group as one of the best runners up.
They gave high-flying Aberdeen a hard time at Pittodrie, came back from 3-0 down to win at Dumbarton, and whacked Lowland League neighbours East Kilbride 8-0.
But after a solid start in the league, beating Raith 1-0 on the opening day to cost former boss Ian Murray his job at Stark's Park, the Diamonds have lost their sparkle, exiting the League Cup with a 6-1 Dens Park hiding after shipping five the previous week at Ayr.
Recruitment has arguably been similar to Morton’s, with striker Ben Wilson coming from a lower level at Cliftonville and Aaron Reid, signed from Aberdeen only tested at League Two and Highland League level, while Lewis McGrattan headed in the opposite direction to Ballantyne and Lyall.
The weekend doesn’t promise to be a classic, but I doubt many will be concerned if we walk onto Sinclair Street at 5pm tomorrow discussing how fortunate we were to scrape three points from another Morton versus Airdrie bloodbath.
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