Morton manager Jim Duffy believes that Rangers are in for a culture shock when they take to Alloa’s newly narrower pitch at Recreation Park on Saturday.
Rangers boss Mark Warburton expressed surprise this week that Alloa were allowed to make alterations to their pitch dimensions midway through the season.
Duffy’s side played out a 2-2 draw there on Tuesday night, and the Cappielow boss admitted that he had to alter his style of play for the challenge posed by the restricted space available.
He said: “We had to adapt to it, and it’s certainly a very narrow pitch. I’m presuming, although I don’t know for certain, that it’s right on the border-line of what is allowed.
“It’s very tight and I’m sure that Rangers are in for a bit of a shock when they go there at the weekend, because it really is very tight.
“I was a little bit surprised they were allowed to do that mid-way through the season. It’s not a ruling that I look at but I thought you had to submit your dimensions at the start of the season and that would have to be that throughout the season, but obviously not and Jack [Ross] has decided to do that.
“I think Rangers did it in Europe a few years back, so I don’t think you can argue about it too much if you’ve done it yourself if I’m being honest!
“But it certainly makes the game very competitive, put it that way. There’s very little space.
“I think they’ve taken it in four yards at either side, so making it eight yards narrower is a big difference in football.
“It makes for a compact, competitive game, where you have to work hard to find space, and in the first half of our game we did that really well.
“It’s a different game with a different requirement, and it meant we had to play a slightly different style.”
Morton have meanwhile signed experienced former Hibs goalkeeper Andy McNeil until the end of the season.
Duffy has moved to bolster his options in goal after regular number one Derek Gaston picked up a head knock in the recent Scottish Cup win at Annan.
“Derek Gaston might be back this weekend, but if something else happens to him then it strengthens our position in terms of back-up.
“I’m delighted to bring Andy in. He’s a good goalkeeper.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel