Morton Club Together Updates

[TONofmemories]

Ironically enough, MCT getting rid of Gus and co would be one of the best things they've done since coming in. I fail to see much more good at present. 

Time it may take, but there are several things/people that should/could have been implemented already, such as some sort of dedicated media person with a clear and defined remit and structure to their tasks to make us look a tinyyyyyy bit less clown car like. 

Edited October 25, 2021 by TONofmemories

[9 Strathblane Crescent]

11 hours ago, capitanus said:

I'm sure i'm not the only one who understood none of that. 

There are no shortage of 'members' who have voiced their unhappiness on here about things at both MCT and GMFC, but they don't seem to be empowered to be able to change things.  However the small group of people from MCT who have been appointed to the board of GMFC have acted as though they have 'carte blanche to do as they please' on several occasions now, whilst not condescending to explain controversial decisions like awarding a two year fixed term contract to an interim management team, or worse still, signing a convicted sex offender against the wishes of a sizeable amount of the support.

Any supporter who thinks it is some fan-owned democracy that they are contributing to right now is seriously deluded.   Our club has been taken over by a clique of strangers who have hoodwinked the supporters into bankrolling them.

 

There is an easy answer to that. If you don't like who's in control and running things vote them out of office. That's how it works. But I shall point out one thing where you do have it right. There is no provision in the Articles of Association (Rules) for the members to call a Special General Meeting which in my opinion is an oversight.

[Guest capitanus]

There has been no shortage of 'Animal Farm' references amongst the supporters in relation to MCT, and I think this typifies the way that people feel right now.  

[bigB]

9 games and counting without a league win tick tock

[Toby]

I've got some concerns surrounding last night's match that I think are worth looking into.

First of all, a boy I was speaking to had got a comp from someone at the club before kick off and was refused entry at the Cowshed turnstiles and told he had to sit in the stand, before returning to the ticket kiosk and get it swapped for one that would get him into the shed.

A couple of issues with this- I get that it's the done thing in football, and I've benefitted in the past and will probably benefit at some point in the future from this. But the club's owners are shelling out £245 a season/£20 a game to watch Morton, whilst players/officials' pals are getting in for hee haw, whilst the club pleads poverty. Perhaps limiting this might go some way to improving the bank balance?

And also, if you're going to give out free tickets for a game in a ground which is 20% full, is there any need to be so stringent with segregating fans who support the same club? It only goes to piss off fans and comes across as if the club are deliberately going out their way to make things difficult for folk. There's no need.

I was more concerned however with the stewarding towards the segregation fences in the Cowshed though. It was great to see so many weans at the game, and particularly because so many of them were cutting about in the Joma Morton trackie tops. Possibly a sign of the club's community work bearing fruit. However, at one point in the first half, a young lad, no more than 11 years old, was frog marched past me by a steward, with his pals in tow protesting his innocence or begging for leniency. The pals returned, but not the boy who was the subject of the steward's attention. I don't doubt the kid was probably misbehaving, but what actually happened to him? Was he taken to a quieter part of the ground and supervised by a steward? This would appear to be a pointless waste of resources for a pretty harmless wee kid. Were his parents contacted to collect him? Or, was he ejected from the ground and forced to fend for himself? I certainly hope it wasn't the latter, but suspect it may well be.

Of course I've got no issues with adults being ejected if they can't behave themselves, but if I were the parent of a kid that was flung onto the street alone on a dark, rainy Tuesday night in October, I'd be wanting answers.

[MCT Team]

2 hours ago, Toby said:

I've got some concerns surrounding last night's match that I think are worth looking into.

First of all, a boy I was speaking to had got a comp from someone at the club before kick off and was refused entry at the Cowshed turnstiles and told he had to sit in the stand, before returning to the ticket kiosk and get it swapped for one that would get him into the shed.

A couple of issues with this- I get that it's the done thing in football, and I've benefitted in the past and will probably benefit at some point in the future from this. But the club's owners are shelling out £245 a season/£20 a game to watch Morton, whilst players/officials' pals are getting in for hee haw, whilst the club pleads poverty. Perhaps limiting this might go some way to improving the bank balance?

And also, if you're going to give out free tickets for a game in a ground which is 20% full, is there any need to be so stringent with segregating fans who support the same club? It only goes to piss off fans and comes across as if the club are deliberately going out their way to make things difficult for folk. There's no need.

I was more concerned however with the stewarding towards the segregation fences in the Cowshed though. It was great to see so many weans at the game, and particularly because so many of them were cutting about in the Joma Morton trackie tops. Possibly a sign of the club's community work bearing fruit. However, at one point in the first half, a young lad, no more than 11 years old, was frog marched past me by a steward, with his pals in tow protesting his innocence or begging for leniency. The pals returned, but not the boy who was the subject of the steward's attention. I don't doubt the kid was probably misbehaving, but what actually happened to him? Was he taken to a quieter part of the ground and supervised by a steward? This would appear to be a pointless waste of resources for a pretty harmless wee kid. Were his parents contacted to collect him? Or, was he ejected from the ground and forced to fend for himself? I certainly hope it wasn't the latter, but suspect it may well be.

Of course I've got no issues with adults being ejected if they can't behave themselves, but if I were the parent of a kid that was flung onto the street alone on a dark, rainy Tuesday night in October, I'd be wanting answers.

I’ve checked in with the club on this. They’re required to give out a certain amount of comp tickets for every match, they mainly go to the families of players from both teams. There hadn’t been any feedback given internally on that specific example you mentioned unfortunately so I can’t give any more than that general point around comps. 

Two young children were throwing bottles at Thistle fans, were asked to stop, didn’t and were removed from the Cowshed and taken to the safety office. Their parents were called and they arrived to collect them. 

Hope that helps! Thanks for flagging.  

[Toby]

8 minutes ago, MCT Team said:

I’ve checked in with the club on this. They’re required to give out a certain amount of comp tickets for every match, they mainly go to the families of players from both teams. There hadn’t been any feedback given internally on that specific example you mentioned unfortunately so I can’t give any more than that general point around comps. 

Two young children were throwing bottles at Thistle fans, were asked to stop, didn’t and were removed from the Cowshed and taken to the safety office. Their parents were called and they arrived to collect them. 

Hope that helps! Thanks for flagging.  

That’s all fair enough.

[The Bewilderedbeast]

1 hour ago, MCT Team said:

I’ve checked in with the club on this. They’re required to give out a certain amount of comp tickets for every match, they mainly go to the families of players from both teams. There hadn’t been any feedback given internally on that specific example you mentioned unfortunately so I can’t give any more than that general point around comps. 

Two young children were throwing bottles at Thistle fans, were asked to stop, didn’t and were removed from the Cowshed and taken to the safety office. Their parents were called and they arrived to collect them. 

Hope that helps! Thanks for flagging.  

That surely raises another question though, how did they get the bottles in?

There was a boy about 15 quite openly drinking a can of cider in the toilets behind the shed at halftime.

Stewards maybe have to be doing more perhaps.

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by The Bewilderedbeast

[Jamie_M]

6 minutes ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

That surely raises another question though, how did they get the bottles in?

There was a boy about 15 quite openly drinking a can of cider in the toilets behind the shed at halftime.

Stewards maybe have to be doing more perhaps.

 

Think they were too busy confiscating umbrellas last night.

[Guest capitanus]

5 minutes ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

That surely raises another question though, how did they get the bottles in?

There was a boy about 15 quite openly drinking a can of cider in the toilets behind the shed at halftime.

Stewards maybe have to be doing more perhaps.

 

Hidden out of sight from the stewards i presume.

As for the boy with the can of jakey juice in the lavvies....

  

 

 

[TRVMP]

I'm glad stewards aren't frisking people to confiscate cans. Cans are amazing. You can put cider in them.

 

[vikingTON]

2 hours ago, MCT Team said:

 

Two young children were throwing bottles at Thistle fans, were asked to stop, didn’t and were removed from the Cowshed and taken to the safety office. Their parents were called and they arrived to collect them. 

Give them comp tickets as a reward. 

[Toby]

4 hours ago, MCT Team said:

I’ve checked in with the club on this. They’re required to give out a certain amount of comp tickets for every match, they mainly go to the families of players from both teams. There hadn’t been any feedback given internally on that specific example you mentioned unfortunately so I can’t give any more than that general point around comps. 

Two young children were throwing bottles at Thistle fans, were asked to stop, didn’t and were removed from the Cowshed and taken to the safety office. Their parents were called and they arrived to collect them. 

Hope that helps! Thanks for flagging.  

I know is said fair enough, but just to re-visit this…

Firstly, I do think it’s worth reviewing the procedures so as folk aren’t pissed about so much by petty little rules about segregation between the stand and terrace, particularly when capacity isn’t an issue.

And secondly, the kids were asked to stop throwing bottles but they continued? Bottles are prohibited from the ground- I can understand them getting one in, but how many did they actually have if they continued to throw them? I could imagine being told not to throw coins and eventually a steward getting pissed off, but bottles seems a bit far fetched, given the size and difficulty to smuggle more than a couple of them into the ground, especially for an 11 year old.

Sounds to me like there were absolutely no second chances afforded by the stewards because of the sheer logistics of a wean carrying multiple bottles, yet they’ve gone with a story anyway, regardless of how improbable it sounds.

I get that stewarding is a relatively low paid job, and probably not a particularly enjoyable one for the hassle involved in it, but our lot carry a bit of a reputation as being some of the more difficult ones in the league, I’d suggest. Of course their actual employers should be the ones responsible for their training, but they work in customer service, and I’d argue that they’re more antagonistic than customer focussed more often than not. The initial point about sending folk away instead of using common sense would back this theory up. I’d argue the club aren’t getting what they should be expecting from the security company they employ.

[Guest capitanus]

Why weren't the Partick supporters in the Wee Dublin End?  Why are we persisting on allowing away fans in the Cowshed?  In an era where we are all supposed to be social distancing, sticking to bubbles etc. Surely it would make more sense having a large group of people from outwith the area all standing separately in a large open air environment and leave the cowshed for Morton supporters.

Also, regarding chucking bottles about, surely the offence of throwing a bottle once would merit being forced to leave the ground, even possible police action.  

[Cet Homme Charmant]

17 hours ago, MCT Team said:

 Two young children were throwing bottles at Thistle fans, were asked to stop, didn’t  

That seems very far fetched. Throwing bottles at people if a fairly serious criminal act, as if they landed on someone's napper it could cause serious injury. If they were genuinely throwing bottles at folk, the default response is surely not to 'ask them to stop'? I smell shite. 

[Jamie_M]

1 hour ago, Cet Homme Charmant said:

That seems very far fetched. Throwing bottles at people if a fairly serious criminal act, as if they landed on someone's napper it could cause serious injury. If they were genuinely throwing bottles at folk, the default response is surely not to 'ask them to stop'? I smell shite. 

Almost certain to be empty plastic bottles if anything.

Edited October 28, 2021 by Jamie_M

[TRVMP]

Get the forensics team out. It might have been gummy cola bottles.

[Jamie_M]

 

[RossMcC1874]

Some of those answers from the board are worrying. 

When asked about the 2 year old you just get the sense they are like we fucked up and we can't explain it other than we wanted some stability. You can do that with one year and not 2. 

Also when asked about the goalkeeper situation we will look into that in January. So if Jack Hamilton gets injured just play cappie the cat in goal in the mean time aye? 

Pretty worried if these sort of people are running the club and they don't even have answers to some basic legitimate questions. 

[TRVMP]

I don't really blame Nick for not knowing what the question means at 6:00... so why was it asked? "Input in this regard" - what does that mean, would be my first question? Regard presumably means the previous topic, which was declining income due to declining gates. Input, what kind? Do we need their expertise or do we want them to write us a cheque?

Not blaming the guy who asked the question either, as if I'm reading it rightly it's a fair enough question to ask. It's not one I'd have asked personally, since we need to be far less reliant on largesse and more reliable on sustainable income and recurring investment. But this is the problem with one-way Q&As, you can't get into clarification, you can't get into discussion.

Aside from that... the left hand clearly doesn't know what the right hand is doing. All this stuff about how we have a contingency fund, all this stuff about needing stability and experience, but then when the question becomes about the actual managerial position, suddenly we don't have any money again and there's nothing we can do. So which is is it? Is it: we have contingency money to allow us to navigate difficult situations (such as having an absolute haddy in the dugout); is it that we believe in some kind of long-term project spearheaded by Gus; or is it that our hands are tied irrespective of the project because we actually don't have a contingency fund?

Far from impressed with any of this lot, frankly. I don't doubt they're working hard, I know for a fact they have in some cases some decent careers behind them, but you'd be hard pressed to see it based on this video. I'm not sure how many more times I can hear them talk about sustainability and commercial improvement while so manifestly failing to do things like sell hospitality packages properly.