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To answer Piehutt’s point about my labelling of Gordon Ritchie as arrogant, I’m not going to kid on I’m not privy to the odd wee titbit of information from mates, but it’s up to them to share it with the wider public if they feel the need to. That said, I’ve already alluded on this thread to what I believe to be his quite appalling treatment of Christopher Dodds at Montrose in May, when he apparently threatened to withdraw all his media privileges as a result of Christopher’s criticisms of Captain Calamity Sean McGinty the previous week. On a number of levels, this is just wrong. There’s been a big story about Rangers charging the media £25,000 a season for access and how this is their way of controlling negative output. I fail to see a difference here, other than scale. Do we really want to see the Tele being forced into avoiding criticism for fear of being banned? I’m sorry, but unlike the Rangers support, who seem to see criticism as a personal slight, rather than necessary on occasion, I want to see my club taken to task when things go wrong. It also begs the question as to whether Roger Graham or Jonathan Mitchell, two experienced journalists who had built up a bit of currency in their roles would have been treated in such a way. If not, I’d suggest this behaviour is tantamount to the bullying of a young boy at the early stages of his career, and is quite frankly shameful. I didn’t like a lot of things that the Raes did in their twenty years at the helm, and made my opinions known at the time. But ultimately, it was their club and if I wasn’t happy, nobody was forcing me to support the club. A fan owned club though, should in my opinion hold itself to higher standards as they are responsible to every one of their members and supporters- the people whose money has put them in the position they occupy. I was a bit late to the party when joining MCT as I initially had my misgivings, but I certainly don’t recall being asked to vote for Gordon Ritchie. Others may have been, before I joined up, but in the spirit of democracy, I’d urge everyone to ensure he’s not given another spell in office at either MCT or Morton themselves.

Here we are a couple of days later and the Forum is full of praise for the way the club acted in the transfer market, and how the club's staff announced the signings. It's almost as if, and this is just a hunch here, supporters criticise the club when they don't like what's happening, and praise the club when they do like what's happening. You know, like every other set of football fans do. But don't let that minor detail stop you from some good old fashioned Helen Lovejoy-esque faux outrage.

Cadden scores hat-trick for Forest Green but best of all Bombscare McGintys' og fucks up Hopkins weekend.

(Photo- www.tellhimhespele.com) The Flying Finns by Russell Gordon Tuesday's deadline day drama certainly had us all glued to our phones, in what was perhaps the most exciting day of positive movement in and out of Cappielow since the inception of the windows, around a generation ago. Even when Douglas Rae opened the purse strings in the January of 2015 to bolster our promotion charge with the signings of Peter MacDonald, Ross Forbes and the re-signing of Declan McManus, our enthusiasm was tempered by the farcical nature of Michael Tidser's arrival in spite of his ineligibility to actually play until the following season. But with the arrival of Finland Under 21 international Jaako Oksanen on loan from Brentford, it was only natural that those of us of a certain vintage looked back fondly to Nordic influxes of days gone by. I wouldn't be doing them justice to attempt to write about the Great Danes of the 1960s, such as Kai Johansen, Carl Bertlesen, Borge Thorup, Jorn Sorenson, Preben Arentoft and the man in black, Erik Sorenson; but my memory does stretch back to the arrival of Finland internationals Janne Lindberg and Marko Rajamaki in the autumn of 1994. We were first exposed to Janne a month before his arrival at Cappielow when he played for Finland in their opening Euro '96 qualifier against Scotland, inadvertently assisting John Collins' goal as his clearing header fell nicely on the Scotland midfielder's left foot, for him volley the national team into a 2-0 lead in Helsinki, a result Scotland would hold onto as they started what would become a successful qualifying campaign. One of world football's most iconic figures of the 1990s... tussles with French midfielder Didier Deschamps. (Photo-Getty Images) The autumn of 1994 wasn't a happy time at Cappielow. The club had been relegated to the Second Division for the first time in their history, amidst a season-long injury crisis the previous year, and league reconstruction that saw Morton being amongst five clubs relegated from the First Division. A stuttering start to the campaign in '94 did little to suggest that Morton would be pushing for a speedy return to the First Division though, only for them to turn up at Shielfield Park in Berwick with two trialists from Finnish club MyPa47 in the ranks. The result on the day wasn't to be a positive one, as Morton fell to their third league defeat in a row, 1-2 to the hosts having previously fallen 0-1 to Clyde at Cappielow, and suffered a 0-3 hosing at Palmerston Park. But it didn't take Allan McGraw and the board long to decide to take the plunge on Janne and Marko, and a fee of £250,000 found its way to Kouvola, unthinkable for Morton in these times. The signings of the Finns were by no means a quick fix, as results remained inconsistent towards the festive period. Whilst over a quarter of a century has passed, and my memory could be playing tricks on me, the Scottish Cup tie against Kilmarnock in my mind proved to be the turning point of the season, against what was a very good Premier Division team at the time. My standout memories from the 0-0 draw at Rugby Park in late January were Stephen McCahill's header narrowly clearing Dragoje Lekovic's crossbar to deny us a shock win, and the imperious performance on Janne on the day. Alas, Morton were to suffer a narrow extra time replay defeat by the Ayrshire men at a bouncing Cappielow, but kicked on from there, with three wins in February, including an absolutely crucial 1-0 win over Stenhousemuir, only a week after their incredible Scottish Cup slaying of Aberdeen; courtesy of a goal and fantastic performance from Marko. But Morton being Morton, it was never going to be that easy, and a sticky patch in March kept things interesting in what was to be a four-way battle for promotion between ourselves, Dumbarton, Stirling and Stenny. Things were to come good the following month though with crucial wins against East Fife and Clyde, before a memorable 4-3 win on their return trip over the border set up what was effectively a title decider against Dumbarton. Of course, it was all to end joyously, as Marko's incredible goal put the icing on the most delicious of cakes, and we retook our place in the second tier at the first time of asking, bagging a nice little silver pot in the process. Derek McInnes was to win the Player of the Year award, but it would be foolish not to acknowledge the contribution of our two imports. Whether Morton would've been in the promotion race without them is seriously doubtful. A couple of awestruck admirers watch on as Janne launches a Morton attack at Ibrox in 1995. (Photo- Chris McNulty) What wasn't in doubt though, was that Morton with their two Finnish stars were a force to be reckoned with, as they took the following season by storm, with Janne, Derek McInnes and Alan Mahood pulling the strings in midfield and Marko providing a flair on the wing that is still spoken about in glowing terms even now. Whilst there were a number of great performances and results that season, particularly early on, it was on Morton's visit to St. Mirren in late September that Marko perhaps produced his finest performance in a Morton shirt, as he absolutely tormented the Saints defence in a 4-1 win, cementing his place not only in the hearts of the Morton support, but as a hate-figure amongst the Buddies faithful. What a man. Of course, that incredibly exciting team was to come up just short, owing in no small part to the departure of Derek McInnes to Rangers and the season-ending injuries to Janne and Alan Mahood. Marko was to continue to do his bit to drag us through, with vital goals in the run in against Hamilton, both home and away and an admittedly howling miss in the vital 1-0 win at home to fellow promotion hopefuls St. Johnstone. He was of course to equalise in the final day showdown against Dundee United, but Morton were left to rue their misfortune and look forward to the following season. Marko leads the charge in a 3-0 win against Clydebank at Cappielow, on the opening day of the 1996-97 season. (Photo- Chris McNulty) The 1996-97 campaign was to prove both players' final season at the club, and was an anti-climax for us all, as a much-fancied Morton failed to live up to expectations, finishing the season in eighth place, comfortably clear of relegation, but miles away from a promotion play off place, never mind runaway champions St. Johnstone. There were to be highlights, however- Marko's early season winner against Falkirk was delightful, as winners against Falkirk tend to be, and there was the incredible League Cup tie against Aberdeen which ended in a 3-7 defeat, with Morton coming from 0-2 down with 15 minutes of normal time remaining to lead 3-2 going into the last minute, only to suffer another hard-luck story. In truth, with promotion becoming a more remote prospect as the season progressed, McGraw put all his eggs into the Scottish Cup basket, with a fine replay win against Dundee setting up a quarter final with Kilmarnock at a near capacity Cappielow. There was to be no hard-luck story to this cup defeat though, as Morton were resoundingly trounced 2-5 by Killie, in spite of a brief second half fightback. As the season petered out, and the players' contacts ran down, their departures became inevitable and a really thrilling, but oh so brief chapter in Morton's history was to reach its conclusion, to be succeeded by the Scott era, which I'm sure is an article or two for another day. Janne was to go onto pastures new in Germany with FC Saarbrucken before finishing his career back at MyPa47 and embarking on a career in coaching in his homeland, whist Marko was to enjoy brief stints at Hamilton and Livingston, even playing against Morton for the Accies, also finishing his career in his native Finland, with TPS Turku and enjoying a successful coaching career. Both have returned in the intervening years to visit, Marko turning out in a testimonial in 2006 as well as attending a game against Hamilton in 2012 and receiving a rapturous reception. To my knowledge, Janne hasn't made a match on his return, but his daughter Nanne has been a vocal supporter of the club through her social media accounts, so it would be rude not to give her devotion to the cause a mention! Since their departure, we've seen Jani Uotinen flying the flag and collecting a Third Division winners' medal in 2002-03 for his troubles and Jonatan Johansson's fast flowing, easy on the eye (or something like that) brand of football help us secure safety in the rollercoaster 2018-19 season. Let's be honest though, Morton fans love a signing from that part of the world, and will surely take to Jaako. No pressure, but there are some pretty big shoes needing filled, young man! Thanks to Jonathan Mitchell for his contribution into the research for this piece and to Chris McNulty for his help with archive photographs.

Ordered an Uber today and my driver was none other than Andy McLaren. Good to see him looking happy and healthy.

Birthday card pish. Greenock Morton of course famously the only club in world football with annoyed supporters. Any semi-competent outfit should be able to look past the ‘noise’ of about the 3000 fans left in the support and just function. For 20 years we have been run like a circus, and we are still in a very precarious position with regards to the future of the club. Supporters have every right to scrutinise, and criticise when merited - and it has certainly been merited for much of this summer.

As an editorial team, we have decided that we will not be covering our match against Celtic Colts in our usual manner. There will still be a match thread on the Forum for those to wish to discuss the game, however there will be no match preview, away day guide or post-match podcast record covering the game. We, as an editorial team, disagree strongly with the inclusion of Colt teams in senior competitions, a position that we feel is reflective of the view of the wider support. We feel that covering the game in the usual manner would place a level of concurrence on the inclusion of Colts teams that we do not wish to display, and feel that this is the correct way to show our disdain for their inclusion.

Nobody at all forced him to dole out new contracts to absolute shite like Muirhead, Blues and Oliver either. There’s no excuses at all for being in this position, especially when the justification for keeping Gus on was the bizarre idea that he was going to be able to build on an illustrious 9th place finish and move quickly to sign players.

Great to see the club trying to shift hospitality- except, when my pal called yesterday to book for 13 of us for the Arbroath game on October 2nd, he was told that Lesley Anne was off yesterday and today and to phone back tomorrow (Wednesday). Then they advertise Raith hospitality today. This begs a few questions. Who is selling hospitality in Lesley Anne’s absence for Raith? Why couldn’t they take our booking for Arbroath in her absence? Why are they advertising it on her day off if they can’t take bookings in her absence? Is it a case of a communication breakdown that contradicts what fans were told yesterday? Is it a case of Morton having our £1200 odd in the bank for the last two years anyway so we can wait whilst they deal with the more immediate issue of Saturday’s game? Whatever it is, and I think of Lesley Anne as one of the good guys, who does a good job at Cappielow; if bookings can’t be taken in her absence, that’s yet another one of the basics the club are failing in. I get that the money’s in the bank, but pissing off your loyal fans who have already put their hands in their pocket doesn’t bode well for repeat custom. Really poor customer service from the club, again.

In a strange way this stuff annoys me far more than some of the other faux pas. I don't expect an all singing and dancing website to be a top or even secondary priority but updating the site in a timely fashion is an easy quick win that would demonstrate the difference between the old regime and the new. It really is a basic issue that is easily resolved but once again it's an afterthought. I'm relatively patient and understand that there will be significant demands on a fairly small group of people but please don't continue to tell me how important fan engagement and communication is if you cannot deliver the most basic information consistently and professionally.

Appreciate the update from them but I'm more concerned why Dean decided to leave the leadership team over concerns about the direction MCT is going in. Guy travels home and away, runs the forum and hosts a Morton podcast so if he's unhappy with things he's seeing behind the scenes then that's a real red flag for me.

Morton getting rode is par for the course these days, but signing a sex offender then having fans actively celebrating their offences is a new and troubling low, it has to be said.

No more so than I have with any other self absorbed drama queen who’d walk a million miles to get their feelings hurt, but wouldn’t cross the street to get a match ticket if the alternative was to bleat online about the perceived injustices of it A couple of points worth answering, though; Keeping in touch with your mates on a WhatsApp group hardly constitutes living and breathing football 24/7. If you and said mates are aware of ticketing arrangements (which you should be as they were communicated through all the appropriate channels), it makes sense that you do your best to work round these arrangements and accommodate everyone. I’d suggest it takes approximately 3 minutes out of your week to say “yes, I’d like a ticket, I’ll transfer you £20” and reply with “cheers” once said ticket has been purchased. ”We all have our routines and priorities”. Yes, we do. But for the last 18 months, we’ve had to adapt to changing circumstances. Just walking up to a football ground, handing over £20 and going in isn’t how it works these days. The vast majority just get on with the changing circumstances, but there’s always the odd one who makes it all about himself- see Ton4Life. For all Morton’s faults, there are some genuinely good people working at Cappielow, who would bend over backwards to try and accommodate folk. The days of Susan Burns treating paying customers with downright contempt are in the distant past, and I don’t think for a second that someone like Brendan or Lesley Anne wouldn’t go out their way to help anyone. The post was grossly unfair on Morton and those who have handled the ticketing arrangements. There are times that they won’t get everything right, but generally they work to get a solution for everyone. Posts like this should be challenged as they aren’t a fair representation of how the club have worked this week.

Successive managers haven't picked him. There has to be something in that.

I find it very believable especially seeing as someone was supposedly given info from the club about a 2pm cut off for tickets at the ground which was nowhere to be seen in any of the posts from the club. Who’s gonna make the effort to go to the ground only to find they’re too late to get in!? It would have taken very little extra effort for the first info about the game to say “tickets available from Smiths and the Cappielow ticket office until x o’clock”! took me 10 seconds to type. Common sense during normal times would make you think tickets are available at the ground no bother, but these aren’t normal times! As usual Morton make things harder than they need to be. Also don’t get me started on the website still directing people to gmfctickets.co.uk

You are such a fanny.

Let's not try to pretend that said new regime aren't culpable - for handing him a new contract at all never mind a 2 year one. They aren't stuck with anything, they chose it. But there's most certainly going to be no accountability for that.

On a positive from today, Oksanen looks a player. If we could get ourselves playing football then he could be a good asset. With McEntree and Lithgow/Mclean, we should really be able to go to a 4 at the back. This shape isn't working

Losing patience with Gus now. I wasn't happy when he got another chance and he has done nothing since to change my opinion. He simply does not have any answers and his lack of ability becomes more obvious as each week passes. Continuing to play oxygen thieves like Muirhead in the vain hope that he still has something to offer is a disgrace.

Not going to lie, I’ll be distraught if he gets bagged before we go there in a fortnight’s time.

With Finnish midfielder Jaakko Oksanen joining the club on transfer deadline day, Russell Gordon took the opportunity to reminisce about Morton's Flying Finns - Janne Lindberg and Marko Rajamaki.

Just looked at the squad page. All the new signings are missing too. Lots of photos missing for players who've been here for ages, such as Russell and Hamilton. No photos from this season and one player is even in the kit from a season before that. (If we've not had the photoshoot this season, fine, but that doesn't account for this mistake.) Different photo dimensions. All stuff that one person with a give-a-fuck-o-meter would want fixed. None of it is huge, but it's part of a greater whole of tinpottery.

Not getting ahead of myself here but it's time to clear out space in the trophy cabinet.

I get where the original poster is coming from. I was talking to someone (a mate, FYI, irnbru) a month or so ago about this and the mindset of supporters and the relationship with the club. I think it's important to realise that the club board is no longer a closed shop with a them/us relationship (regardless of how good that relationship is, that's essentially what it always is when not fan-owned). We're fan-owned (one day...), it's our club now more than ever, and so we absolutely should be pulling together to improve the club. That being said I think it's vital that we continue to criticise, or "bitch and moan". Where I sit in the middle of the two sides is we need to remember MCT/GMFC are well intentioned and we're essentially doing this against ourselves (e.g. the GMFC directors were on our side of the fence not long ago as fans, no doubt saying the same things, and now they're 'them' or 'the club'). Can't say I tend to follow my own advice on this one all the time, in fairness. The them/us relationship needs binned with the previous era, and we do need to band together, but the feedback, shall we say, from the general fan is so important. For what it's worth, I see the club as a glorified junior club at the minute, so the more open feedback to MCT the better.

The guy who replied to the tweet’s brother is a volunteer at Cappielow, looking after the mascots and is involved with MCT, but it would be unfair to tar him with it. Has to be said though, when someone digs you out for celebrating someone pulling one off in public, it takes a special sort to reply by labelling them a wanker. Although I very much doubt he’ll see the irony in that.

So if Brentford can't compete with Man City, that's Brentford's board's fault? I'm not saying MCT don't have an obligation to improve our finances, they clearly do, but the idea that we should be pushing the boat out is ludicrous and their progress should be measured in years, not months. They're not even formally in charge of the club yet. Gus knew exactly what he was signing up for, namely a tough job in which recruitment and contacts in the game would be key. I don't envy those responsibilities. But we can't just expect money to magically appear from MCT's pockets.

Clearly it did go quite well, given that we sold out our allocation and are probably bringing the biggest travelling support to an away game since the cup quarter final against Celtic in 2018. But of course, you’ve been inconvenienced, so it’s a disaster. I’m not local myself, but have had plenty of mates across two or three group chats all offering to pick up a ticket for me. Has asking a mate been an option you’ve considered, or are you equally as insufferable in real life as your online persona on this forum is? Have you called Cappielow to find a solution beyond moaning on here about the injustice of it all? Whilst I’m very much in the “MCT couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery” camp, anytime I’ve phoned Cappielow regarding tickets, I’ve never experienced any problems with them posting tickets out promptly. I wouldn’t say I’d be too far off the mark in suggesting that if you really wanted to get a ticket, you’d probably have gotten one, and with minimum fuss. However, the path you chose was to whine about the whole injustice of Morton’s ticketing policy which isn’t tailored around you, and you specifically. I hope you have a thoroughly miserable Saturday, punctured briefly by hearing Morton have beaten that minging lot. Although that would probably not be what you’re after anyway.

Let’s not give them too much credit, eh? They’ve done the bare minimum that most would expect from them and communicated their statement on the back of a postage stamp, whilst, when they feel wronged the standard statement is akin to War and Peace. And yes, you can already see the Partick fans going all out to portray the alleged perpetrator as the victim by reading the match thread on Pie and Bovril. I suspect the club will do likewise, even in the event of a conviction. We stand with Derek Gaston.

That's kinda the same with me and OH Leuven, I'll go to a handful of games this season, though I'll watch the others live on telly. But even though I'm very much an occasional attender, a week or so before before every home game I'll get an email reminding me of the upcoming fixture with the date and KO time, the covid restrictions, and with links to the ticket website. And because this weekend is the first that there's no covid restrictions, they're sending out videos like this to publicise it... https://www.ohleuven.com/tv/2223198/mobiliteitsplan-king-power-at-den-dreef-stadion So even casual fans like me are fully informed on when the games are, what the resections are, if any, and how to get tickets. This is all very basic stuff and isn't hard to do.

Gus’ post-match interview, “can’t really ask for much more” If that’s the case you’re as well leaving mate.

I make that 2 wins in 14 league games. Tick-tock Gus.

Not sure if it's recency bias but gusball bores me more than duffyball and even hopkinball. Barely any of these players on the pitch today suit us playing route one but it's still drilled in to them. Gozie covers a lot of cracks in how he wants us to play and without him it's a hard hard watch.

Swiftly followed by Gourlay.

Wait.... You don't live in croftfoot and are in the croft bar are you?

2 of the new lads have arrived and been kitted out in neither of the new home tops (at least neither of them resemble the one I've got)🤦‍♂️ I know it's probably trivial, but when it's splashed over social media it just looks tin pot as f*ck

I think the club played a blinder with the way in which they conducted themselves in the transfer window. I recall c.2010/11 when the gobshite kitman would feed titbits of information on what he knew to whom he wanted to be pals with, and it cost us a player who went on to Dundee. When your resources are limited, playing your cards close to your chest is essential. Let others do the speculating, and we'll have more like that Gus.

Apparently 'democracy' means not doing or saying anything unless you're actively standing for election, who knew?

We've been paying our subscriptions, buying season tickets, buying strips - what else do you want us to do? So far we've had a sex offender signed and failed to bring in enough signings to be competitive. At every turn we've put our faith and money in MCT and so far been let down - badly. Yet, I'll still keep sending them my money every month - for now - and supporting the club any way I can. So you can fuck off telling us we don't have the right to talk about what we like and don't like on a fans forum.

The club aren’t going to ban someone for offensive chanting or posting online when they’ve actually employed the guy who’s crimes are the subject they’re glorifying. I know it’s different ownership now, but look at the amount of bans Gerry and I dodged back in the day. You know however there’ll be a lot of back slapping and congratulating about how they’ve managed to “get a rise out of all the snowflakes” and stuck it to all these arseholes that have got too much to say for themselves. When in reality, once he sobered up, he was too ashamed of his tweet that he felt forced to delete it in the hope that it’s all forgotten about and there are no repercussions. Fooling nobody.

Agreed.

To justify a song about sex offences on the basis of keeping you going after a defeat is utterly pathetic .

Let’s not forget this is a support whose songbook includes “fuck the Pope and fuck the Queen”. Looking for a character reference from them is like putting forward Myra Hindley to say you’d make a good baby sitter.

We need a real central midfielder added to the squad rather than relying on either Blues or Lyon. If Jacobs gets injured then we're royally fucked. Either McPherson is throwing the scent off some Alan Jenkins level signing or he's deluded for thinking otherwise. It should be the top priority addition to the current squad.

I hope Morton will be refusing entry to the Queen of the South vlogger who, on their last visit in front of a crowd, fraudulently tried to gain entry to the ground as a child, recorded the game on his mobile phone without permission and then decided to drag our club’s good name through the mud and put a steward in fear of prosecution by spuriously claiming to have been assaulted on Twitter, only for his own vlog to contradict those claims. Possibly the best thing our club has done since signing Ross Forbes was tell that bellend Manpreet that he wasn’t welcome into Cappielow on the final game of 2019 as he looked to complete a full decade of attending Partick games- I hope those high standards are maintained in this instance.

With that approach there's only one direction the size of our support is going. There's also a reason that massive companies like Coca-Cola and whoever else continue to still spend millions on advertising a year. I can't imagine anyone in their marketing department would last long if they suggested, "everyone knows about Coke, if they want one they'll go get one".

The kind of person who is motivated enough about Morton to post regularly on a forum might not intuitively get this. It's clearly very important to us, hence we spend time thinking about the club and discussing it. But that's simply not the case for a lot of people. For example, I very occasionally go and watch FC Dallas here. I wouldn't call myself a die-hard fan by any means but if I fancy a bit of fresh air and some live football, or if a mate wants to go, or it's a particularly big game, I might head along. But I don't keep a close eye on their fixture list, I don't know all the ways they sell tickets, and as such I'm more likely to go along if they market it and make it easy for me to do so. The idea that I'm going to sit there and phone them so that they might deign to tell me how to get into the stadium is a joke.

SEE ME FEEEEEEEL ME TOUCH ME HEAL ME

Which means it's a reflection of something that looks shoddy as fuck then?

The one area we’re apparently not looking for bodies in is midfield. We cannot possibly persist with this setup the rest of the season.

Yep, it's disappointing to have a decent enough overall performance being undermined by the complete lack of options off the bench to change things. While there were mistakes the team worked hard but at a professional level they need different options and fresh ideas that we badly lacked.