Match Preview | Queen of the South
Queen of the South versus MORTON
Scottish Championship
Saturday 23 January 2021
Palmerston Park
Kick-off 3pm
by Brendan McEleny
Scene Setter
Morton are back on the road tomorrow afternoon as they travel to Dumfries to take on Queen of the South in the Scottish Championship.
Anton McElhone’s side head into tomorrow’s game on the back of a 0-0 draw with Dunfermline Athletic at Cappielow Park last Friday night and the interim boss will be hoping his players have what it takes to come away with their first away win of the year as they look to maintain their play-off position.
The ‘Ton have not lost a league fixture to Queen of the South since 19 September 2019, a stat that will no doubt be playing on the mind of all involved tomorrow and hopefully come 4:45pm, their undefeated league run against their opponents will have continued.
Allan Johnston’s men are currently placed 8th in the league table but a recent run of good form creates some optimism for the Doonhamers with the side recording 3 wins out of their last 5 games.
But with the Greenock side currently on a run of five consecutive games undefeated, they will head south infused with belief that they’re capable of repeating the performance that saw them triumph at Palmerston last February.
Morton Milestones & Significant Stats
5 – Anton McElhone’s side are unbeaten in the last 5 Scottish Championship games
6 – Aidan McAdams secured his sixth clean sheet of the season in last week’s 0-0 draw with Dunfermline
8 – Morton have scored an impressive 8 goals in their last 4 meetings with Queen of the South
14 – The ‘Ton have scored 14 goals in all competitions so far this season.
Current Connections
Queen of the South defender Gregor Buchanan spent one season with Morton in 2018. The 30-year-old scored 2 goals in 41 appearances before opting for a move to Falkirk in June 2019.
Michael Ledger had a brief spell with Queen of the South last season, signing in February and making only 5 appearances before making a move to Morton at the beginning of this season.
Forward Gary Oliver joined Queen of the South initially in June 2015 scoring 8 goals in 29 appearances before departing for Morton in 2016. The 25-year-old spent three seasons at Cappielow until he returned to Dumfries for a second spell last season scoring 5 goal in 25 appearances. Oliver was welcomed back to Morton during the Summer last year and has scored 1 goal in 10 appearances so far this term.
Head to Head
Sat 8 Feb 2020: Morton 2-2 Queen of the South (Ladbrokes Championship)
Sat 29 Feb 2020: Queen of the South 0-4 Morton (Ladbrokes Championship)
Tue 6 Oct 2020: Morton 2-2 Queen of the South (Betfred Cup)
Sat 19 Dec 2020: Morton 2-0 Queen of the South (Scottish Championship)
Last Time Round
Greenock Morton provided the perfect Christmas gift last month as they ran out deserved 2-0 winners against Queen of the South in the Scottish Championship at Cappielow Park.
What was looking like a very eventless first half sprang to life on 41 minutes as the Sinclair Street side’s patience paid off with a well worked goal. Cameron Salkeld showed tremendous strength to reclaim possession on the halfway line and passed the ball into the feet of Josh McPake who danced around two defenders before pulling the trigger on an effort which Ferguson parried out. The loose ball fell to the feet of Salkeld who snapped a shot towards the Doonahmers’ keeper who again made another great save to keep the score level. It was third time lucky though as the ball rebounded back out to Kalvin Orsi who managed to smash the ball through a number of players and into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
The Greenock side maintained their composure throughout and ensured the game was put to bed on 77 minutes when Kalvin Orsi grabbed his well-deserved second of the game. The forward headed home from a few yards out after a perfectly placed cross into the box by Robbie Muirhead.
Officials
Referee: Alan Newlands
Assistant 1: Stuart Hodge
Assistant 2: Kevin McElhinney
How To Watch
Tomorrow’s game will be streamed live for £10 on QOSTV.
You will need to register and set a password. Once logged in you will see, under Next Match, a Paypal button.
On that link you can pay with a PayPal account or by Debit/Credit card without registering on PayPal.
Once paid for, the PayPal icon on the homepage will change to a Video Icon. Click this to view the stream
Image: David Bell
