Match Preview/Thread - QOTS vs Morton (1st December)

[dunning1874]

2 hours ago, TRVMP said:

Agreed 100% with this. They've been well and truly hoodwinked. I get that, as non-footballing people (as we fans generally are as well) they are going to generally defer to a guy who's been around the game his entire working life, who's carried out a number of backroom roles, some with pretty good success in fact, and generally aren't going to second-guess the guy.

But that level of trust and good faith comes with an obligation to actually deliver, and Gus' win record is so bad that the board is remiss in not asking serious questions of it. It's all very well letting the guy say he's running the show and placing trust in him, but if they seriously think that, just because we're not loaded, sitting joint-bottom and showing few signs of improvement is good enough, then they've had the wool pulled over their eyes. A combination of being a 'big name' (relative to the Championship) and being so unremittingly negative about the club has placed him in a pretty secure position. The board are terrified to suggest we might have to do better because Gus McPherson, big fitba man, says we're shitey wee Morton and who can really expect us to compete with the likes of Raith and Queen of the South?

It's been a recurring theme even under the previous regime, in fairness to the current occupants, but even DDF for all his failings didn't mind saying, for example, that Garry O'Connor was a fat mess, rather than saying "aye but he played for Scotland."

I fully agree with your general point here, but it's worth pointing out that in 2021 Gus MacPherson isn't even a big name relative to the Championship. No Championship club other than Morton would have gone near him with a bargepole after the job he did at Queen of the South in 11/12 and he'd done nothing to repair his reputation since; we only ended up with him because the club was such an omnishambles off the park that the general Championship merry go round names wouldn't have touched us in March.

He was willing to take it on because only a club in such a mess would be willing to give a manager with such an appalling recent record a chance at full time management and that's the state we were in in March. Fast forward to the summer and despite MacPherson's failure to do the job he was brought in to do - keep us out the bottom two - relegation was avoided.

That put us in the position where despite Morton’s place in the pecking order, the off field shambles and the transitionary season ahead, dozens of managers with a better pedigree than Gus MacPherson would have been queuing up to take the job if it was available. Non-football experts being gullible and sticking with the guid fitba man who's already in the job and talking up his credentials to them in those circumstances is one thing, but being reckless and frankly idiotic enough to hand him a two year deal is another.

If they were led up the garden path by MacPherson demanding a two year deal and saying he'd walk otherwise then that's just not acceptable. The correct response in that scenario would be to let him walk, because Gus MacPherson’s standing and managerial track record dictate that he should be the one coming crawling to a Championship club begging and desperately trying to meet their demands, not the other way around.

[dunning1874]

12 hours ago, TheGoon said:

Our manager somehow turning a question about poor league form into a moan about how hard done by we’ve been having to play away matches, and that’d continue if we get through. Get so far to fuck with that chat. 

Here it is word for word.

Interviewer:

"The league form's not been great but it's a great chance tonight to kickstart your campaign, and there's a chance of winning silverware at the end of this."

MacPherson:

"Yeah, but we're away from home, that's, we've got to be respectful to the competition. Somebody in their wisdom thought it was good to do a predicted draw and somebody's always going to be away from home because we're the last team out, so we're always going to be away from home and in the current financial climate that's a burden y'know as well.

"So whoever had that idea, I thought it was poor y'know. But we got on with it, we've already been away from home against Celtic B and away to Montrose so our expenses have been pretty stiff as well. We've been up to Montrose, down here, and if you progress you're up at Cove."

What an absolutely tragic loser the man is.

[The Bewilderedbeast]

Agreed why start whining about on live TV just before kick off, pointless and embarrassing.

However, I can see his point about the predicted draw.

Not only does it cost the clubs money, but fans of clubs affected, are also having to pay out for travel for every game. What's the problem with a random draw.

 

[Toby]

49 minutes ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

Agreed why start whining about on live TV just before kick off, pointless and embarrassing.

However, I can see his point about the predicted draw.

Not only does it cost the clubs money, but fans of clubs affected, are also having to pay out for travel for every game. What's the problem with a random draw.

 

If you want to complain about things like that, the time to do it is before a ball’s kicked, not at the point that you become the poor unfortunates. And I’d argue that we’ve had far less favourable random cup draws in the recent past, with a ridiculous run of away ties, often to Ross County round about 2008-11 IIRC.

It smacks of deflection from a man who knows he’s lost the support and is just scrambling around for anything to cover his back.

As for Lithgow, whatever the right and wrongs about the stick he’s taken, the cupped ears gesture’s ridiculous. Can he not read the room, here? He could be the second coming of Franco Baresi, and help us to promotion and the Scottish Cup this season and his critics (I include myself in that) still wouldn’t want him anywhere near this club.

That his performances in the main (I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing every game this season, fortunately) have been sub-par at best is neither here nor there. Scoring a goal against another rank-rotten Championship bottom feeder goes no way to shutting folk up about him.

The sooner both are out of this club the better, but I’ve got no faith in our elected incumbents to headhunt someone who will have us moving in the right direction. 

[The Bewilderedbeast]

I thought his "celebration" if it can be called, that was more fingers in his ears (in a I'm not listening gesture, rather than cupping his hands around his ears, in a let's hear you now type of gesture.

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

Agreed why start whining about on live TV just before kick off, pointless and embarrassing.

However, I can see his point about the predicted draw.

Not only does it cost the clubs money, but fans of clubs affected, are also having to pay out for travel for every game. What's the problem with a random draw.

 

McPherson doesn't give a toss about the fans, it was simply an opportunity to play his favourite 'plucky wee Morton, up against it again' card.

He's a fucking loser whose attitude needs to be rooted out of the entire club from top to bottom. 

[TONofmemories]

Lunch time and he's not been sent packing yet.

Not good enough.

[The Bewilderedbeast]

29 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

McPherson doesn't give a toss about the fans, it was simply an opportunity to play his favourite 'plucky wee Morton, up against it again' card.

He's a fucking loser whose attitude needs to be rooted out of the entire club from top to bottom. 

Not saying he does care about the fans. My point is that if the football authorities want folk to attend these games then why have a draw system that disadvantages fans of clubs in a particular half of the draw.

The SPFL Trust competition is already viewed as a waste of time by many, so why drive more people away with this type of system.

Clubs like ourselves, who don't have a lot of cash, may be forgiven in adopting the Ray McKinnon approach to team selection when drawn for a tie which entails a 280 mile round trip followed by a 200 mile round trip with the possibility of another 340 mile round trip with zero chance of getting a home tie.

Toby's right, last night was not the time to bring it up.

[TheGoon]

Already seen some of the usual “Who would we appoint?” and “It’s a poor squad, what’s the point in sacking him?” guff. We’re not showing any of signs of improvement, none - we’d genuinely be struggling to appoint someone that’d get worse performances out of the squad. 

I don’t even see a “clear the decks” scenario with relegation. Whilst I don’t disagree with gutting the club out, I think the utter incompetence that led to it would kill fan ownership dead in the eyes of many supporters, if it isn’t already. 

[gmfc23]

1 hour ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

I thought his "celebration" if it can be called, that was more fingers in his ears (in a I'm not listening gesture, rather than cupping his hands around his ears, in a let's hear you now type of gesture.

Let's be honest it doesn't matter what way it was intended. 

He's a fkn idiot he obviously knows what's going on n he's attempting to keep it going with that moronic goal celebration

What he should have done was make sure as a defender and captin(which is laughable) that the team were switched on those last 3/4 minutes instead of acting like a fud and letting qots stroll through him and the team like they weren't there. 

[dunning1874]

21 minutes ago, TheGoon said:

Already seen some of the usual “Who would we appoint?” and “It’s a poor squad, what’s the point in sacking him?” guff. We’re not showing any of signs of improvement, none - we’d genuinely be struggling to appoint someone that’d get worse performances out of the squad. 

Obviously this is always a ridiculous non-sequitur argument as managers should be judged on the job they are doing and not the hypothetical performance of their replacement, but it's especially galling that anyone would try it in this case.

Who could possibly do better? Literally every other manager we've had in the last 20 years. Not that I want them back either, but every single one of them had a better record than Gus MacPherson.

[Alibi]

I think questions need to be asked of the board (and btw I received a prompt reply to my query about who was responsible for the appointment of Gus on a 2 year deal - it was indeed decided by 4 individuals from MCT, and apparently that was already in the public domain unknown to me). I am not sure how these individuals came to be on the board and not any other members of MCT but maybe when things settle down we should be able to give proper consideration to who should be on the board. Are these individuals competent? What qualities and qualifications do they have? They are not owners of the club but merely proxies for the entire membership. One name in particular has been mentioned by several folk as being shall we say a bit of a bully. It’s early days, but we need to ensure we aren’t funding some folks’ personal power trips.

[Tubes]

Just get him to fuck. Record is an absolute joke and he has to go. 

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, The Bewilderedbeast said:

Not saying he does care about the fans. My point is that if the football authorities want folk to attend these games then why have a draw system that disadvantages fans of clubs in a particular half of the draw.

The SPFL Trust competition is already viewed as a waste of time by many, so why drive more people away with this type of system.

Clubs like ourselves, who don't have a lot of cash, may be forgiven in adopting the Ray McKinnon approach to team selection when drawn for a tie which entails a 280 mile round trip followed by a 200 mile round trip with the possibility of another 340 mile round trip with zero chance of getting a home tie.

A professional football club that blows off a cup competition because its bean-counters say no may not be forgiven for it. They can file a separate application for Greenock Royston Vasey FC to play in the West of Scotland League instead - although Campbeltown Pupils would no doubt give the board fits as well. It is indicative of the pathetic, small-time mentality that hangs around this club. 

Fans were not disadvantaged by choosing to attend a tie at Airdrie against a vile B team that didn't disgrace the pitch at Cappielow. The vast majority boycotted it anyway. They also weren't disadvantaged by choosing to go to Montrose during a dung international break either. Moving the QF to a midweek is the only daft decision in terms of fans - and going by the footage a significant number still chose to attend. 

[port-ton]

Multiple of The Morton boards decisions have directly led to a split between fans and players after less than half a year of their tenure, nevermind the split between board and fans. Some going when the whole point of community ownership was to bring a sense of togetherness back to the club, squad and wider community. 

I know they are volunteers but they put themselves in the positions they now hold and It's hard to imagine anyone doing a more destructive job in such a short space of time. The only way it seems they can be held to account is for fans to stop their MCT funding until changes are made, and unless there are drastic changes throughout the club in the near future either at board level and/or on the footballing staff then December will be my final payment until I feel the club is in a place where my money will be used to improve and progress the club. 

[TRVMP]

1 hour ago, port-ton said:

Multiple of The Morton boards decisions have directly led to a split between fans and players after less than half a year of their tenure, nevermind the split between board and fans. Some going when the whole point of community ownership was to bring a sense of togetherness back to the club, squad and wider community. 

I know they are volunteers but they put themselves in the positions they now hold and It's hard to imagine anyone doing a more destructive job in such a short space of time. The only way it seems they can be held to account is for fans to stop their MCT funding until changes are made, and unless there are drastic changes throughout the club in the near future either at board level and/or on the footballing staff then December will be my final payment until I feel the club is in a place where my money will be used to improve and progress the club. 

Disagree completely. I'd only do this in the case of actual malfeasance. There are democratic ways of replacing the blazers and they need to be the first option. 

[ChampTon]

I understand there's financial differences between MCT and the era of Crawford Rae, but even Crawford would've had this dafty out the dug out by now. I also believe he wouldn't of given the chancer a 2 year deal. Other appointments in the past somewhat merited a 2 year deal. This one? Laughable.

[TaunTon]

I wonder what else has to happen before the board show some backbone and remove Gus from his responsibilities. He has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he is incompetent, inept and so far out of his depth that I'd be surprised that any pub team would give him a second glance.

His contribution and influence is entirely negative and listening to him mewing about an away tie sums up his attitude perfectly. I have gone past the point of embarrassment with Morton this season and have now reached the sunny uplands of total indifference.

The board and MacPherson have collectively sucked the energy, commitment and goodwill out of the fanbase in what should have been a season of hope, ambition and aspiration.

There are No Rae's to blame anymore, this one's all down to the board and they're willingness to prolong this pantomime rather than accept they got it wrong.

[RossMcC1874]

Just saw the post match interview what a joke. In what world does he think we were better in the second half we miles off it all game. Same usual pish from him the club should be embarrassed with the situation we are in,but the board are too spineless and clap happy to make any real hard decisions. More fed up than ever supporting Morton at this moment in time. 

[port-ton]

Anyone with "it'll be tough" on their weekly interview bingo card will be overjoyed. 

You have no idea just how tough it is Gus.