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Hard lines to the happy-clap section whose desperate wagon-circling exercise at full time ended in complete and utter failure.

"We've got no God-given right to come down to Dumfries and get a result" - Gus McPherson, master of motivation and competent manager, 2 December 2021. Firstly, I'd like to see where anyone has actually stated that we have a God-given right to anything. Would that be a ridiculous, straw man being assembled? Secondly, Queen of the South contested the match last night with no recognised, senior centre back and with Willie Gibson - a fucking winger deputising. Despite this, your Morton team registered a pathetic two shots on target from open play, both of which came from our centre backs. Queens also had three outfield subs listed on the bench, while you made five changes during the match. So the onus is in fact on you to deliver a result with the significantly larger resources at your disposal in the circumstances of last night's game. And you failed spectacularly. What sort of fucking loser abdicates all responsibility for the primary objective of his job like this, and why on earth has he not been huckled out of the door?

As for Lithgow: Was it the 6-4 game against Arbroath, in 2003/04, where some herring-botherer scored and was so busy GIRUYing the fans that he missed Morton going up the other end to score? Fuck, at least it wasn't his own fans he was giving it big licks to. Being captain and the lynchpin of the defence and conceding an instant reply... I mean fuck me. I'm not even mad, the fish rots from the head and this attitude comes from the Board on downwards. Lithgow's just a symptom of a much bigger problem, that poor wee Morton are doing their best and the fans are such evil ogres for wanting better than this: That's our competitive season. The wins comprise victories over a fifth tier outfit, "Clyde", a Hamilton outfit busily stepping on rakes, a youth team, Montrose (on penalties), and Dunfermline. That's three games you'd really have to win, plus two wins against fellow relegation strugglers - decent results but not earth-shattering. Our last league win at Cappielow was in March, against QoS. And while our attack is a greater concern, the defence for which Lithgow as sometimes-skipper and veteran center back is a key part has kept just four clean sheets from 15 games. (Our Goals Against column isn't bad in isolation; in combination with actual results it's utterly damning.) And he thinks he's silencing his doubters? It's amazing stuff. You know, I'd forgive them everything if it was like Mourinho's Chelsea and they were building a bunker mentality where it was that dressing room against the world, and they'd go out and shitfest wins and take over the continent. But it's not like that at all. He's going about like Harry Maguire and playing like Harry Enfield. Gus is styling the team an underdog, then taking them to the vet and chopping their balls off. Meanwhile the Board thinks this is all fine.

Will MCT be tolerating discussion of a club employee whose clownshoes decision-making will get us relegated the season anytime soon? I'd like full disclosure on how the decision to offer a two year deal was arrived at, so that I know who to blacklist for all future MCT elections to the board. And we should also turn our attention to those on the GMFC board, whose track record in decision-making that affects the first team has been utterly disastrous. If fan ownership is to mean anything, it means accountability for the decisions made by representatives.

In a sense I get where you're coming from, but it's never, ever the job of a football club to settle for some sort of acceptable minimum. The aim should always be as high as possible. Without being unrealistic, the aim should be some form of progress with a view to some successes. Put it this way. In Gus's 24 league matches, we picked up 20 points. In the 24 league matches prior to Gus joining, we picked up 30 points. We've regressed. It's December, we've won one league match at Cappielow in 2021. Gus has been here since mid-March. It's regrettable in a way, but we had to do something - fans cannot accept not seeing the team win. And new manager appointments are always a risk. Duffy looked like a terrible appointment, but that was a relatively good one. JJ's appointment looked a bit exciting and different, but ended up being very negative and dull. It might not improve things, but that doesn't mean that it's not the right decision to make. Billy Dodds currently has ICT top, who'd have picked that out as a good appointment? Dick Campbell is doing brilliantly with Arbroath. McGlynn and McCall are the other managers up there in the league at the moment - who both had to come back from failures and time away. It's an exceptionally tough decision to make, but there will be a fair few options out there. I don't think the club did a bad thing in appointing Gus, but it wasn't working out. The two year deal was a massive mistake, and hopefully we've learned from that. I'd like to see us look for a manager who is genuinely excited by the opportunity. We need a manager that isn't going to talk the club down - we've had enough of that.

Gus McPherson: "To come here and put in that type of performance is a credit to the players." Aye we were always going to be up against it playing at the Allainz Arena Gus, but at least plucky wee Morton kept the score down. This fucking loser needs emptied now and any board that enables this fucking loser mentality at the club is complicit in its failure.

The Easdales who are our major sponsors and the former chairman who allowed the transfer to fan ownership being guests at a game really shouldn't be major news. If the board start having to publically comment on nonsense like that then we might as well shut the club down. So many more pressing matters of concern than that.

Noticed that earlier, it's not even on the fixture page. Nor, for that matter, is the result of the original fixture from six days ago in Inverness. Is there one guy at all at the club, just one, who actually knows what Morton is? A professional football club, which plays football matches that people like to watch because they like football and the Morton football team that plays it?

(Photo- Source Unknown) Five of the Best- Scottish Cup Upsets by Russell Gordon The Scottish Cup. Quite simply the greatest competition in sport, never mind football. And with Morton's involvement in this season's competition starting (and most probably ending) this weekend, we can still at least dream of Kyle Jacobs leading the lads up the stairs at Hampden on the 21st of May to repeat the feat of their predecessors from a century previous. Whilst the greatest upset in Morton's history took place on 15th of April 1922 on Glasgow's southside, that's a topic for the anniversary, so we'll first wander back a mere 74 years to the 1947/48 season; Celtic 0-1 Morton, 27th March 1948. Semi Final. Most Morton fans will be aware that our only "other" appearance in the Scottish Cup Final was against Rangers in 1948, when we eventually succumbed to a replay defeat in fading light at Hampden in front of a record aggregate crowd for a final. But how did we get there? Morton's run to the semi final was relatively straight forward, with routine routs of minnows Ayr United, Falkirk, Queen's Park and Airdrieonians before being drawn to face Celtic at Ibrox in the last four. Admittedly, this was a Celtic team who finished 12th in a 16-team league that season, only a point and two places above Morton, who just avoided the drop. The class of '47/48 who disposed of Celtic on the way to the club's second Scottish Cup Final. (Photo- Greenock Morton 1874-1999, Vincent P Gillen) But Morton headed into the tie minus two key players, with Johnny Divers and the legendary Tommy Orr missing out. According to Vincent Gillen's Greenock Morton 1874-1999, the critics were said to believe Morton had "no chance". They were replaced by young Eddie Murphy and Tom McGarrity, and it was Murphy who proved to be the hero. After a stalemate in ninety minutes against overwhelming favourites, he was to net a dramatic winner from 14 yards past the despairing Celtic keeper Willie Miller in the first period of extra time to empty the Glasgow side from the tournament. A story with some striking parallels to a League Cup tie some 65 years later, come to think of it. Quite how many corners Celtic made a complete hash of in that semi final is something I can't confirm, unfortunately. Morton 1-0 Aberdeen, 14th February 1981. Fourth Round. As with the tie against Celtic in 1948, there wasn't as much between the two clubs as there is in the modern era. Unlike that semi final, this was a clash of two extremely good football teams. Aberdeen were the champions of Scotland at the time, and although Morton were to finish just above the drop zone, we'd bite the hand off anyone offering us eighth in Scotland's top flight now. Dons' Manager Alex Ferguson's hoodoo against the 'Ton was well publicised at the time, and Morton had in fact gone to Pittodrie a week previous and recorded a 1-0 win. But Cappielow perhaps saw its greatest day on Valentine's Day 1981 as Andy Ritchie's incredible 20th minute goal, which saw him plant the despairing Ian Considine on his backside before delicately placing the ball beyond Scotland keeper Jim Leighton as his international teammates Willie Miller and Alex McLeish could only look on in awe at the sheer brilliance of the control and finish. McLeish was involved at the other end as he nodded down for Andy Harrow to fire a low volley which was brilliantly turned round the post by Roy Baines. And Baines was also to deny former Morton striker Mark McGhee on a couple of occasions, with McGhee's complaints earning him a place in the book as he claimed Baines had fouled him. As someone who was two young to enjoy this particular match, I can only hope that the Cowshed were as sympathetic to McGhee's protests as our own generation would likely be. The final whistle was met with rapturous applause from the home support as Morton progressed to a quarter final with Clydebank, winning 6-0 at Kilbowie after a 0-0 draw at Cappielow, before falling to Rangers in a controversial Celtic Park semi final for which the mercurial Ritchie was dropped from the starting eleven, but still managed to convert a penalty in the 1-2 defeat. Aberdeen on the other hand, would win the next three Scottish Cups and put paid to Real Madrid in the Cup Winners Cup Final of 1983, which goes a way to show the magnitude of Morton's achievements in regularly troubling Scotland's best side of that era. Probably Cappielow's finest ever goal, on perhaps Cappielow's finest day, from Morton's finest ever player. There were however to be other great Cappielow strikes as Morton disposed of supposedly more illustrious opposition in years to come. (Video- Leon Mooney) Morton 2-1 Dundee, 23rd January 1999. Third Round. Morton had dispatched of the Dees only two seasons previous en route to a quarter final showdown with Kilmarnock, but this time around were a division below their big spending opponents, who had been promoted to the newly formed land of milk and honey of the SPL as champions in 1998. But with the introduction of a winter break in Scotland's top flight, the Dens men were caught cold by a Morton side who came out the traps with two first half goals to seal the tie. The game had, however been in doubt, as a power failure at Cappielow led to a 35-minute delay to kick off. But the wait was to prove worthwhile, as Owen Archdeacon's rasping 30-yard strike had future Scotland keeper Rab Douglas grasping at thin air on the half hour, before Ross Matheson's close-range finish doubled Morton's advantage. Eddie Annand reduced the arrears, but it was to no avail as the Ton progressed to a fourth round tie with Clyde. A 6-1 rout of the Bully Wee ensued before Morton fell to Celtic in a live TV quarter final at Cappielow, Henrik Larsson and co. managing to do what the Bhoys of '48, and indeed '13, couldn't. (Video- Leon Mooney) Ross County 1-2 Morton, 25th January 2003. Third Round. With Ross County in the First Division back in 2003, this result may not be one that would immediately raise too many eyebrows, but this was a massive boost for a Morton side struggling for consistency as they tried to negotiate their way out of Scotland's bottom tier after Hugh Scott's disgraceful neglect and the subsequent administration had seen Morton relegated in consecutive seasons. Having already disposed of eventual Highland League winners Deveronvale 4-3 at Cappielow in a second round tie that wasn't without it's scares, around 600 Morton fans travelled up the A9 and found themselves singing in the rain as the 'Ton felled County by two "Super" Alex Williams strikes to a David Winters counter. Williams also found time to miss a second half penalty, but it wasn't to dampen the spirits of the sodden Morton faithful who had plenty to celebrate as they descended to their buses and to the Mallard to toast what really felt like the club's first real positive step on the road to recovery. We would of course win the league that season, but the cup campaign was to go no further than a disappointing 0-2 home defeat by Stranraer. However, in spite of how sadly it all ended for Williams, we've never seen an out and out goal scorer like him since. Often folk think what might have been, but what memories he did give us. (Video- Leon Mooney) Morton 3-1 Kilmarnock, 7th January 2007. Third Round. What is it about Cappielow, cup shocks and absolutely incredible goals? Move over Andy Ritchie, get out the way Owen Archdeacon, and step forward Chris Templeman. Jim Jeffries' Killie side rocked up at Cappielow for a tie that brought back memories of a number of cup disappointments against the Ayrshire side in the 90s, with Morton exiting the '94, '95 and '97 tournaments at home to Kilmarnock. But with two divisions separating the sides, this was to be Morton's turn. Morton had led the Second Division from the first day to the last, and taken care of East of Scotland League Annan Athletic in the previous round to set up a mouth-watering tie in front of a raucous crowd which created a crackling Cappielow atmosphere. After a first half stalemate, it was Kilmarnock who took the lead- Colin Nish netting a beautiful volley from Garry Hay's cross on the left two minutes after the break. From there on, it was all Morton though, with Templeman at the centre of everything. He was to find himself unfortunate not to score on a couple of occasions before finding himself on the end of a sweeping move that his own good defensive work had started. His deflected effort found a way past Graeme Smith in the Killie goal to level the affair just after the hour. The game was turned on its head 7 minutes later as Templeman took Chris Millar's cross on his right foot before acrobatically volleying Morton into the lead with his left. Cue utter bedlam. The often clumsy and awkward journeyman, who Morton had paid an eye-watering fee for two years previous, turned in the performance of his life and should've had a penalty after being scythed down by Gordon Greer. Fortunately referee McCurry waved play on and within seconds, Jim McAlister laid the ball on a plate for Paul McGowan to extend Morton's lead and send us through to a fourth round tie at Fir Park. Morton would lose that tie 0-2 to the Steelmen in front of a massive travelling support, but it's amazing how many people in their twenties you hear describing the Kilmarnock game as their first Morton match. There can't have been too many times the club have got folk hooked in the last generation or so, but that was certainly one of those days. And for a guy who would become a school janitor in later life, I'd like to think that Chris Templeman has a story or two to tell some wide-eyed school kids about the day he turned into Pele. (Video- KillieFC TV) There won't be too many expecting a glorious cup run this term, but let's not kid ourselves, the thrills the Scottish Cup provide are exactly why we love football. Be it a day out at an unfamiliar non-league club like Turriff or Beith, a brilliant shock like Kilmarnock and Aberdeen at Cappielow, or even the shame of defeats at places like Peterhead and Spartans, the possibilities the tournament provides are endless, even for a club of our size. Hopefully one day...

If this is the hill that GMFC are choosing to die on, then I'm wondering whether it's worth talking them down at all any more. Will we be getting a prissy club statement if another individual club employee just trying to do his job gets called 'an incompetent slaphead manager' (among other things) at the next home game? It's rather likely that he will after all - so will be sending out 1,000 Hawke-era letters about that 'unacceptable' behaviour? What qualifies board members who you wouldn't know from Adam a couple of months ago to decide what kinds of comments at a football match are acceptable, based on nothing more than their approval? Here's a thought: if you're so interested in 'unacceptable' comments, then take your own first team manager to task for his mewling shite after Saturday's match about how great the team performed in a completely deserved defeat to Raith fucking Rovers. Standards work both ways at a football club and you are failing them across the board right now.

MCT should not be answering key questions about governance and decision-making at the beck and call of questions from individual members. Would Alibi be given access to voting records or an account of events that isn't shared with every other member, unless you ask first? Not even a bowling club gets run in that way. The reality as you well know - and why your mewling wagon-circling is truly pathetic - is that it's not individuals at all. These are widely held and expressed concerns. MCT know fine well what the issues are, but in recent weeks have chosen to simply run away from addressing them across this forum (which they quite clearly keep tabs on) as well as the podcast. There is nothing keeping the subscription model going apart from the fans' goodwill. It's high time that MCT understood this and acted accordingly.

They'd have no need to answer questions if they'd pre-empted them with some kind of acknowledgement or statement. Of course, people may still disagree and may still want to ask questions, but then the club could say "we've spoken on that already, see our initial statement, no further comment." It wouldn't please everyone, but it would be something. Clyde published this four days after they signed David Goodwillie in 2017: Club Statement - David Goodwillie | 3 Apr 2017 | News | Clyde Football Club (clydefc.co.uk) Again, you can agree with it or you can disagree with it, but it's there, it's clear, it spells out exactly what the club's thinking was and why they made the decision they did. What Morton have done is utterly shite it. And I say that as someone who's absolutely fine with Lithgow playing for us.

They probably knew about it but thought by doing nothing it would quickly be forgotten about. But then, having seen it in the Tele, realised that they’d actually have to be seen to be doing something, rather than brushing the incident under the carpet. Unlike their stance in addressing the alleged behaviour of a director towards a young journalist, or their absolute refusal to even acknowledge the fans’ concerns about the employment of Saturday’s alleged victim. You couldn’t mark those necks with a blowtorch.

A reminder that the entire reason we're doing this is that we, MCT members collectively, believe that the club can be run better than it was under the Raes, and that careful planning and execution over the next two years can lead us to break even. The idea that only subs can keep the lights on is not what we promised the wider fan base.

I'd had a look at when the Q&A with the MCT board was and had a wee rewatch- it was the 28th October so 5/6 weeks roughly. One of the questions was: What are the club doing to attempt to increase attendances? Graham Barr admits the club weren't doing enough. So what have we done since then to try and get more people through the gates? Fuck all is the answer. Content to promote games isn't a hard thing to do. It doesn't need months of preparation to get promotional campaigns for games started. Having a good product on the pitch was something he mentioned about increasing attendances. What have we done since? We've persisted with a dinosaur manager who hasn't got a clue, driving fans away with each game, yet he's still in a job. He mentions reaching out to the Inverclyde community to get them into games. Have we done anything? I don't live in the area (and I'm happy to be proved wrong here) but I'd guarantee you the club is doing nothing/very little to do that. He says the social media output needs to improve. What has changed? Nothing. As I said 6 weeks ago or so it doesn't take massive planning to get better social media content/timely news. At the moment we just get a 2/3 minute interview from Gus (to be fair, that's probably 2/3 minutes too long) from an interviewer who you can barely hear because of the background noise. It's tedious. He said they want 'new and engaging' content with insight into players/behind the scenes etc so where is it? Maybe I'm being harsh and it's not a dig at Graham Barr specifically - he's the commercial guy on the board so probably bears the brunt of my rant. But that's now 6 weeks since that update, never-mind the fact MCT have been in the door full time for 6 months or so. Then you get that ridiculous 2 minute interview with Chris Ross to which we're expected to be doing cartwheels because we've got Carol singers in next week. There just seems to be zero progress on anything at the moment - commercial side specifically. MCT are taking us for a ride in which we're expected to be happy with the absolute bare minimum.

I don’t know the first thing about running a football club (hence why I’m saying we need people who do) but I’m sure if I joined and my first suggestion was “you all don’t know what you’re doing! GTF” I would be everyone’s best friend! Still, great idea though!

I have a small measure of sympathy for the player. It must be difficult to live with this being the first thing anyone knows about you. Of course, yes, this wouldn't be the case had he not done it in the first place. But a decade or more of keeping one's nose clean... at some point he must think he's done enough to move on. And I have some sympathy with Morton in that case as well. It's a guy who, again, has kept his nose clean. They're employing him to do a job, not to be all-time President of the club and a beacon of an example for all. And it's awkward business, let's face it. For the sake of their relationship with the player, and the sake of not wanting discomfort, I totally understand the temptation to body-swerve it. However. Knowing what football fans can be like, knowing that even aside from that some people might have very good and very personal reasons to be alarmed at this... and having made such a big song and dance about being open and transparent, and above all being funded by the very people they want to body-swerve on this... it's really, really not acceptable just to blank the fans here - even if it's a small and vocal minority. They might want to tell that minority something they don't want to hear, but it is absolutely not on to throw down the shutters and pretend the issue isn't there. You can get away with that if you are signing the cheques yourself but if you're relying on these people for your income and you've made a pledge for transparency, you just can't operate in the way MCT has chosen to do so until now. With all that said, I know it can't be a free-for-all. This isn't the MyFootballClub thing, this isn't "the fans run it". There needs to be a level of trust and the fans also need to understand that ultimately MCT and the Board have jobs to do and they can't be on-call for individual complaints 24/7. (Something the likes of Hawke never really grasped.) But it is "the fans own it", and as much as there needs to be a structure around communication (whatever this Feedback Loop shite is, for example), that structure cannot be based around a wall of silence. If you do that, you essentially tell folk they're valued only for their wallets, which is a very, very dangerous road to go down when it's precisely that wallet you need to keep the lights on.

That's undoubtedly true, however by addressing the issue they could at least draw a line under it. Sure, some would still not accept it and remain very unhappy about it, but any time it was brought up again they could reasonably point out that they had explained their position already and will not discuss it again. This is a complete and utter PR disaster for MCT, and one which could and should have easily been avoided. By ignoring the issue they're just perpetuating it. It defies belief that they think this head-buried-in-the-sand approach instead of confronting it head-on is a good strategy. Getting more worried about these guys being the custodians of our club by the day. From the outside looking in, I'm getting the impression they don't have a clue, and actions like this simply reinforce that.

We are disappointed the Just One Cornetto podcast record with Morton Club Together has been cancelled. After we were approached by an MCT director, requesting a slot on the podcast, we agreed to the record on the sole condition that all questions submitted would be answered. MCT agreed to honour this condition a week ago when initial discussions took place. After spending a considerable amount of time speaking to supporters who submitted questions, collating and structuring the script for the record, we sent this to two MCT representatives to allow them time to conduct their preparation for the record. At around 4pm this afternoon, MCT raised concerns regarding one topic for discussion, the decision-making process the club undertook when allowing the manager to sign a player with previous criminal convictions. For the absolute avoidance of doubt, we had no questions that interrogated the character of the player, place stress upon the relationship between the player and the club, nor questions that enquired into personal details of the player’s circumstances. The questions were aimed at the club director(s) involved in deciding whether this signing was appropriate for the club to make, followed by questions asking why the club have failed to acknowledge concerns already flagged to the club by supporters. We took reasonable steps to reassure the MCT directors involved that we had no intention of discussing anything that would breach employment law, which was the basis of MCT’s concerns. It is my position that the club’s frameworks, decision making and refusal to acknowledge fans’ concerns can, and should, be discussed without risk of legal repercussions. It’s also worth noting that this subject matter was one of the two subjects we received the highest number of questions regarding. Supporters want answers and we wanted to provide MCT the opportunity to relay these answers to the fanbase they represent. Given the change in MCT’s position at such short notice, withdrawing their acceptance of the sole condition the record was based upon, we felt that it was an appropriate course of action to withdraw from the record. MCT did offer to go ahead with the record without answering any questions on the subject matter in question, but we felt this would fall short of the standards we expected from this record. We’re disappointed with tonight’s outcome, and would also like to underline that if MCT can meet the initial conditions they agreed to, they are still more than welcome on the podcast. Morton Club Together were offered the opportunity to produce a quote for this statement, to which they declined. Thanks, Dean.

I've not done a poll or anything, but my gut feeling is that probably about 10% of the fanbase are outraged by it, about 10% are uncomfortable with it, and about 80% don't give a flying fuck about it.

My mate Dean approached them asking for a chat. They refused to answer his questions about Alan Lithgow. Hope this helps.

Not the first time Lithgow has been punished for a series of inappropriate tugs, tbf.

MCT are spineless and negligent.

Who was it who got the job of MCT's media communication: Myra Hindley? You can't actually decide what you will and won't talk about with the supporter base that your group fundamentally depends on to exist. There's a delusion of authority here that reeks of 'committee men' on a social club.

"Hey Gozie, fancy signing a new contract? Aye those people who racially abused you will be back in the stand but promise they wont do it again"... 1 year is nowhere near long enough.

He already owns a house in Dunoon and is waiting for a semi-retirement job to move up here. Amazon Prime can get exclusive rights to televise his lower league Scottish football journey, and the club's 10% will fund our European charge. Make it happen.

The next appointment is huge but so is an understanding of what the Board actually wants. I've given chapter and verse on here a dozen times about the false idol of Stability so I won't repeat all that. What I will ask is this. Even if stability is removed from the equation, what does the Board actually want? In their QA they said they want us to finish 8th. Well, we are 8th. So... what's the problem? If you aim for the bare minimum you can't be surprised when you get the bare minimum. My point is thus - right now, with no manager, the names linked with the job are far less important than defining what that name needs to do. That means an immediate end to hard-luck stories and a positive affirmation that we are going to deliver excellence. There must be no more self-deprecating eye-rolling from the blazers. They're here to do a job and they need to start acting like it. And that means anyone like Gus rocking up for a cushy two-year gig, with an "ach, we'll see how it goes" mindset is not welcome. Hunger, desire, and a relentless drive for success are not luxuries in the professional game. Let's stop acting like they are.

How did they get on today, then?

Terrible stuff and no acknowledgement of anything that really matters. 3 minutes to tell us things are back to normal after lock down and we've bought a new lawnmower. Everything mentioned is something that every club in Scotland does, including most junior sides. I don't care we've got a Christmas Carol thing when the crowds are dropping, fans aren't happy and the communication is terrible.

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.

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.

Won't be handing another penny over this season fucking fed up being ripped off. Already cancelled my subscription on the back of us being a complete fucking disaster off the park. Tonight was the final straw on the park. That was toothless gutless and the absolute nick of that fat cunts celebration sums up everything. Everything about us screams absolute fucking shambles. Scunnerd would be an understatement.

Even if people arent upset about a sex offender captaining our club, they should be upset by the fact that MCT don't answer questions to their own members never mind the wider fanbase.

I don't think you necessarily need experience in running a football club though. Anyone with a proven record of professional and efficient business management should be able to do the job. But someone like that will cost money, and instead the MCT board have decided to go down the part-time General Manager route. I assume they intend to fill the gap themselves on a voluntary basis, and we can all see how well that's going. That short sighted penny-pinching approach will cost us a lot more money in the long term. It's Keystone Cop stuff. BTW that isn't meant to be a criticism of the current part-time General Manager, whose been given an impossible remit.

His actions over a decade ago aren't really for us to worry about though. The endless tail wagging over this is OTT

Zero tolerance doesn't imply what the long term punishment will be, though, only that the club will not tolerate it in the ground (and will work to keep it out). I mean, say a young man shouts something racist and is thrown out the ground but 5 or 10 years later has radically changed as a person and has used their own experience to work as a campaigner against racism - would they still be named from coming to a football match, or even from coming to educate fans or players on racism? Some of the best workers in drug addict support work are former addicts, some of the best youth workers were terrors in their youth, some of the best advocates against prejudice were once incredibly prejudiced. I think what we're looking for here is an indefinite ban - until such a time as a real change can be shown to have occurred (if that ever happens).

He was only trying to get the best deal possible, which is what everyone does when they negotiate employment contracts. So I'm sure he did ask for a 2 year deal, but it doesn't mean we should have agreed. He's not to blame for that.

Whoever was responsible for issuing the 2 year deal to that charlatan should be nowhere near the process of appointing the next manager. (They will be)

Aye, and they better no go pleading poverty any time soon because that's on them.

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."

In the real world, operating outside the confines of a strict legalese interpretation of the issue, the principle of rehabilitation is being undermined far more by the continued silence of the club. That silence is the reason the conviction is still a frequent topic of discussion among the support. I appreciate that the club have to be sure they meet their legal obligations as an employer, but the idea that this makes it impossible to acknowledge the situation in any way is quite ridiculous. They have after all alluded to it in two other statements regarding the behaviour of fans at games, in two incidents which may even have been avoided had they made that statement first. The reality is that their silence is doing more harm than good from literally every perspective, even if you want to come at this with the utmost sympathy for any party. Best for the employee who feels he's rehabilitated and wants to move on from his conviction? No, as the club's silence is what's making it an active topic of discussion among the support, meaning it's all over the internet where he may see it and some of that will inevitably spill into matchdays where he may hear it. He can't move on in that scenario where he's frequently reminded of it, far more than he would be with one statement. Best for the club who feel maintaining silence is the right thing to do? No, because they're unable to maintain a silence about it anyway and have made statements related to it twice (albeit they stuck one out under the MCT banner rather than the club, which was itself a bizarre and cowardly move). Best for fans who don't care and want to move on? No, because the issue will continue rearing its head as long as the fans who do care are ignored. Best for fans who do care? No, because they're being told the club doesn't give a fuck what they think and will happily stick their fingers in their ears and pretend they haven't heard any questions. This is an especially damaging look when some of the fans in question are MCT members. Best for the relationship between the club and player? No, because senior figures at the club will inevitably be forced to have discussions with the player whenever the player hears those comments and wants the club to do something about it. Best for the relationship between the club and support? No. We're in a season where an awful lot of damage is already being done to MCT's credibility with pretty much nothing going well on or off the park, to the extent that the genuinely magnificent achievement of delivering a debt-free fan-owned club with ownership of Cappielow just over two years after being formed is rapidly being forgotten in discussions of their competence, and this issue is casting a continual shadow over everything they do. In a time where they're constantly talking about the club and MCT being open and transparent but don't actually have much evidence of doing it, fans are taking the complete absence of openness and transparency about this issue as indicative of their general attitude to both their own members and the wider fanbase. They try to engage with the support via Q&As, but they're filing a dozen questions about this issue straight into the bin every time and leaving everyone asking feeling ignored. They can allude to the issue without directly identifying the player or the nature of the crime in statements regarding fan behaviour, but they can't do the same to give a brief statement addressing concerns of fans while stating their belief in rehabilitation. The impression this creates is that they're simply running and hiding from anything difficult. Fairly or unfairly, when you look at other issues of the club through that perspective then the boot fits. This will only go away when the club make it go away. They have the opportunity to draw a line under it all with nothing more than a few sentences and they're choosing not to.

The best thing about this thread is that the OP, who is notoriously in the know about almost all things within the inner sanctum of the club is posing a question as to what this is all about, as if he doesn’t know exactly what happened and who the alleged perpetrator is. There’s absolutely no doubt he’s trying to draw attention to the matter in the hope that someone else does a bit of name dropping and a ban is issued without him actually grassing on anyone. Fooling nobody.

They can't talk about individual club employees remember.

This said person also was overheard within the bowls of cappielow saying that the 10/15 pound subscription payers to mct wernt even worth bothering about. I've since cancelled subscriptions to mct and won't rejoin untill this fkn idiot has been removed from his position.

If I can use this comparison, there will be 'diehard' Rangers supporters out there that turned their backs on the club whenever they abandoned their discriminatory recruitment policy in 1989 whenever they signed Maurice Johnston. It can easily be argued that the club was right to get rid of this policy as it was discriminatory, it alienated a large proportion of the community, it meant that they were needlessly restricting themselves by having a smaller pool to recruit from, and it meant that they would avoid possible sanctions from football authorities in the future. Coupled with the fact that Maurice Johnston was the best available Scottish player at the time, it was a signing that was done for all the RIGHT reasons. What do Morton have to gain by recruiting a sex offender? Does it mean that we can recruit more sickos, perverts, deviants and wierdos in the future? Will we be viewed by others as a club that takes on any scumbag regardless of what he's done? Are our supporters a lesser type of people who are expected to accept any old shite thats thrown our way from our supposed leaders? Will our supporters be viewed as a lesser type of people who accepts anyone, as long as he can kick a ball about? What do we have to gain other than a season or two service from a journeyman player who may be slightly better than average, but who will be playing for another side against us soon afterwards. For what its worth, I dont have strong feelings against former players of St. Mirren, Airdrie, Celtic, Rangers, Falkirk, Partick or anyone else joining us, some do, but as long as they do well for us; I don't expect football players to be a bunch of choir boys and I can accept if there is the occasional criminal record amongst them for normal things, but there are certain types of wrong'uns that i'd much sooner that Morton would steer well clear from. Sex offenders fall into that category. Does this sound like the sort of guy you'd want in your dressing room: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7856101.stm As for MCT, yes I have been critical of them - perhaps more than most - however there has also been times where I have given them credit. I'm a Morton supporter, not an MCT supporter. They are not one and the same thing. There are and have been good people involved in MCT and it is within the club's best interests that MCT does well and succeed, but there are also things which concern me about them too, certain personnel for instance, lack of accountability, lack of leadership (especially from an organisation that made such a big deal about their 'Leadership Team'), lack of a moral compass from those in charge, naivety with some things. Overall, is this the best bunch of people that we can muster up from our supporters to lead us into 'Fan Ownership'? It is convenient for you to say that I'm only using the Lithgow signing as a stick to hit them with, lets face it - you cant seem to make a compelling case for us signing him. But it confirms a lot of doubts and fears that myself and many 'ordinary' supporters have about them. The fact that they cant front it either says a lot about them too.

I used to love the Killie games in the late 70s early 80s with the Cowshed packed to the rafters midweek. Cracking atmosphere, but there was always trouble, bus windows panned in on a regular basis. Killie used to wear thinner hoops than what we had in these days I paritcularly remember Derek McDicken for Killie, a no nonsense player , these were happy days, we saw out a cracker of a league cup game in the second leg after being down 2-0 at Rugby Park, and they had a goal disallowed early on the game. Anyone else recollect this game?

In which case I think the majority view would be those supporters are being unreasonable. Not that they have to agree, but by refusing to 'take a telling' they're the ones who are out of order, regardless of their views. Such supporters could of course stop MCT payments, boycott games, whatever. That's their right. But they can't say their concerns weren't given a fair hearing. If the club shares your view (and I'm not saying they do) it's another example of irresponsibility. "It wouldn't have our 100% desired outcome of everyone agreeing with us, so there's no need for us to do it" is simply not how communication - or indeed anything else - can be approached under the fan ownership model.

The point you keep missing is that this is a pertinent example of those wider issues. It's not about the rights and wrongs of the signing, it's about how the club dealt with the fallout and what that tells us about those more important issues at the club. The boardroom decision making process on footballing matters is a much bigger issue than signing Lithgow, but understanding how the decision to do so was made and who at a board level actually had responsibility for it would shed light on what that process actually is. That's something the GMFC board are for some reason determined to hide, as also shown by the club Q&A and their ridiculous refusal to reveal which board member is MacPherson's point of contact. That's why people are still asking questions about it and will continue to do so until they get an answer. The lack of accountability or transparency in communication with members and the wider fanbase is a bigger issue than signing Lithgow, but their continual refusal to say anything about it is a manifestation of that lack of transparency. They are supposed to be accountable to their members, their members have consistently asked questions about it and consistently been ignored. It suggests that MCT are happy to say "we want to be transparent" when taking their members money, but the second anyone has a question they don't like they'll go out of their way to avoid being transparent. This complete secrecy in how they're operating then leads to there being no accountability at all, because no one knows who is making decisions or how and why they're coming to them, meaning we've no way of knowing how any of our representatives on the board are actually performing in their roles. That's why people are still asking questions about it and will continue to do so until they get an answer. For the record you can add me to the group of people who generally does agree with the rehabilitation and give a second chance point of view and therefore didn't have an issue with the signing, but I do have a massive issue with how the club has dealt with everything since. It's not about Lithgow, it's because of those bigger issues that this matters.

Probably because that conviction didn't happen until two years after that player left the club and there was absolutely no public knowledge of his crimes, which hadn't even happened yet at the point he signed.

Bed well and truly shat tbh. These charlatans need emptied as soon as possible before we become any more of a tin pot embarrassment of a club. Give us your money don't speak out n do as your told where have we seen this before.