vikingTON

We've literally just had a group whose promises (e.g. innovative energy efficiency - upon entry to GMFC) and pledges to be around for a long time have dissolved into nothing. The key for me in judging risk is the degree to which our operating budget is tied to external funding - by chucking two year deals at players etc. If it is a lesser degree, then we can ruthlessly adjust the wage budget each summer (which is by far the biggest outgoing) and can also postpone any non-essential infrastructure spending. I would also like to see MCT build up its own reserve fund to cover any potential cashflow issues, but that would be a long-term goal. The other fundamentals such as ownership of the ground are not in question. Linking external funding to first team spending was a crucial weakness of the Dalrada deal in my view - though the off-ramp provided for the next 18 months should be appreciated as a final act of goodwill from Dalrada. Having that off-ramp from Dalrada and a potential opportunity to pursue is the best possible outcome given the circumstances. One slight bugbear was that the new proposal was described as providing 'revenue' - which was quite possibly a slip of the tongue, but an important one. GMFC needs capital investment from external partners which MCT also provides each year. For any partnership to work, all sides need to treat funds as an investment in the long-term development of the club - not as a sinking fund for the first team squad. Increasing revenue is the task of GMFC - through expanded and improved commercial operations, prize money from competitions etc.

A 'big win'? Oh aye, because 7th beating 9th at home in the Championship was such a huge story, that it barely filled a single paragraph in the national papers. Meanwhile we've sat out a weekend which will hopefully prove beneficial for Murray in having players recover from injuries and general knocks, but should have GMFC looking ruefully at what could have been won, with a yawningly wide open draw in the quarter finals. The Scottish Cup is multiple times more important in this and almost every other campaign to GMFC than any league game or a January transfer window, but you continue fooling yourself that we've come out of January with our standing as a club enhanced. The 'occasional' viewer stopped paying any interest after Ochilview for at least another season.

I'd like an update on this legacy tbh: https://gmfc.net/greenock-morton-announce-record-commercial-partnership-with-dalrada-technology-uk/ “The initial MCT contact with Dalrada was based on a desire to reduce our carbon footprint and we will explore opportunities to utilise Dalrada technology to achieve this."

The bold points above, in which we are massively fortunate to have 6 other teams in a 10 team division are apparently all having 'shite seasons'. Which is somehow different to the 1990s Serie A standard you bizarrely seem to think is the norm at this level. Our league campaign in terms of results and indeed performances too is entirely slap bang on track for our usual finish. And indeed where you would have placed the squad at the start of the season too "The fact that we have went on to get 4 from a possible 6 points in the league since then only reinforces my earlier point that all the knicker wetting over the stenny result was a massive over-reaction." Nice try, but the subsequent performances in fact prove precisely why the Stenhousemuir result should be treated with absolute fury. Because had we delivered a broadly competent performance as shown more often than not in our league campaign (7 defeats in 23), then we wouldn't have even remotely suffered one of our all time worst results, and would also have an ongoing interest in the season beyond the usual hype casting about promotion/relegation play-offs en route to 7th. That result was the end of our meaningful season.

It was about the fifth thread on this moribund forum, so no 'digging' required. For you to continue to claim that it is a "monumentally awful" campaign and that our current, completely predictable 7th place position is "a borderline miracle" was drama queen hysteria then, and is patently laughable nonsense now. Try as hard as some people like to generate some narrative purpose - and barring some administrative, points deduction enducing failure behind the scenes - this is season is nothing more than an insipid damp squib. It will be filed alongside all our many, many other copies of this one and be forgotten almost instantly.

Just going to bump this - as is my wont - ludicrous revisionism from a fortnight ago, to cover for the straightforward verdict of a team and management simply being incompetent to handle a single cup game. We'll be finishing 7th in the second tier just like in roughly 24 other occasions this century.

I can't agree with that because we were actually more dominant at Dingwall in the last meeting of the two teams. In that game, we should have been 0-4 up at half time without exaggeration. That's not to discredit today's performance and result - given results elsewhere we ended up really needing to secure 3 points, when I'd have taken a point beforehand. Not sure where Ross County's mini revival came from - they clearly have enough quality in their team to get out of trouble, but they remained a shiftless mess today. Brophy was outstanding in linking up play in the first hour today before he got exhausted. Gillespie also played an important role in not just keeping the ball ticking over with his own passes, but constantly showing Wilson and the new CB where to play the ball out from the back. This is the 2nd game in a row against them where Delaney has looked like peak Jordi Alba. I think he gets an unfair amount of scrutiny for not having the same strengths as the previous, dreamboat left back (playing at the exact same level). But today showed his comparative assets in pace, height as well as some promising composure in the opposition box too. He did everything right with the first time finish early in the second half, only to be denied by the keeper. Because he was signed from Inverness, I think people overlook the fact that Delaney is still only 24 playing that role. He's nowhere near club legend territory, but if some ringer from Braeside* was performing to the same level then you wouldn't hear the end of it. Good on him for hating Ross County and reliably swording them in this campaign. *The Strone and countless other scheme origins are also available.

Nine other priority areas, before adding yet another winger to this sunk cost nonsense of a squad.

Well call me picky - because I am - but I would rather have information on injuries communicated by the club itself (for example, to the Tele match preview), rather than rely on your medical expertise. Because last time I checked, Crawford was back and available to play before last Saturday's game.

That's one defender, two fringe midfielders and Crawford, who last time I checked was back in training before the cup game. In terms of our starting XI, only Moore (though not sure what this injury actually is?) is an obvious absence and downgrade: the rest aren't guaranteed starters. Don't get me started on Corr's absence being presented as an issue in the squad... I think the standard of squad is exactly what is needed for comfortable safety this season - Comrie or Ballantyne competing for right back is a relative luxury, for example - which is why we end up getting results like tonight's among a parade of other draws. The squad lacks any genuine quality to get to the supposed promotion play-off standard set though, so the league campaign has got yet another 7th or relatively comfortable 8th place finish in the post.

Yep, a point is absolutely fine. But... what are the actual, confirmed injuries that we have? The apparent point of the summer seems to have been adding squad depth - so we can't really be making excuses (as a club that is, not Murray) for what strikes me as a completely standard, handful of absences during the middle of the season.

Will need to take advantage of the wind being mostly at our back, as the second half will be a different issue altogether.

Birthday caird pish. Who knows the guy will be any good or not, but given the past 2 weeks has involved counselling patience until the 'right' player becomes available, I'll be expecting further and more significant business.

Oh come off it FFS. It's hardly a 2013/14-esque setup, in either budget o availability terms right now.

So on the one hand the coaching staff are "quite clearly responsible" - except for in literally the same post, just above, in which shipping 3 set piece goals from just about 3 actual set pieces to defend is actually about the players 'not doing their job' with 'no sign of bad organisation or coaching*'. Make your mind up please. *Hint: A fundamental part of a football manager's job is to get the players to do their jobs properly. Which includes in-game and half time adjustment to hold those who are not dojng their job to account. It's not some optional part of their job description.