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  1. Irnbru your bitterness towards MCT knows no bounds. You had your day - move on. Just to add I am not a member of MCT. I responded to the shareholder AGM e-mail, was sent a link and had no problem joining the meeting. My two boys also got send the e-mail but were not able to participate. The issue with some stakeholders missing out however requires to be urgently addressed. Gordon Ritchie appears to be the point of contact and I would hound him to get it resolved. As for the AGM, I am sure when one of the volunteers has a moment they will provide a proper summary. In the meantime my take on it as follows: - The loss in 2021/22 was concerning/alarming but has to a great extent been addressed after MCT took over. The feeling was historically costs were not as closely monitored when people assumed there was always a sugar daddy down the line to bail the club out. - This years accounts, when they are published (after the year-end in May) will show a healthy profit largely due to the cup game with Celtic bringing in over £200k. Even without this 'windfall' the Board are confident the club would break even. - Recent sponsorship deals are crucial to the financial balancing act. If I picked it up correctly, the main sponsor Dalrada provided a 12 month package with the option for a further 5 years. Dalrada require the club to share in their ambition for GMFC to succeed and the Board are optimistic/positive Dalrada will take up the option to exercise the option to extend sponsorship at the end of this season. - The majority of the new sponsorship monies has all gone to the manager to improve the squad hence the additions, contract extensions and loanees in January. - All players contracts have been reviewed updating from a template someone found on the internet to a more bespoke arrangement reflecting the modern world of football. - The Board are aware with success other clubs could come in for the manager and players. The Board have tried their best to protect the Club but accept if the money is right they will not stand in the way of an individual looking to better themselves. It is a difficult balancing act protecting the 'assets' without handing out lengthy and onerous contracts to players who maybe do not ultimately fulfil their potential (my words not the Board). - For the first time I heard people explicitly stating the ambition is not just survival in the league but promotion. Realistically recent results have made a title win more difficult but we should be targeting a play-off place. - Average gates are slowly increasing. - The ongoing ticket and entry farce at Cappielow was fully acknowledged. No quick solution this season but the proposed arrangements in the future should hopefully resolve the issue. - Proposals in hand to improve the fan experience and tidy up Cappielow. The Board are looking at the options for the parcel of land they acquired to do something similar to what Ayr provide in their car park. I believe it is a mix of something for the fans on the ground floor and offices above. - Importantly the proposals to replaces the 'Articles' were passed with only one minor amendment requiring (not optional) the Board to hold an AGM. - The three Board members, in attendance, highlighted they would encourage any fan to come forward for election to the Board if they believe they have something to offer. The Club is now 'ours' and it is up to us to ensure it not just survives but moves forward. I am sure there are aspects of the AGM I have omitted but hopefully the above is an accurate recollection of the main points I recollect.
    20 points
  2. Although not linked to the football on the park I thought some fans might like to hear about a good news story linked to Morton. A number of years ago, my kids donated all their old Morton strips to a charity in Rwanda. The charity was set up by people we know and has a focus on the benefit of sport to kids as they grow up. Back then there was quite a bit of media coverage and a number of photos used in the promotional material included youngsters playing football in Rwanda bedecked in Morton kit. A fellow Morton supporter picked up on the story, loved Morton being seen as a force for good and decided to donate a sum of money to the charity. Sadly, our fellow fan passed away last year but in a last act of largesse remembered the charity in his will. It was a generous and unexpected donation which the charity confirmed will assist them greatly in trying to improve the lives of children through education and sport. The only reason I am sharing this story is to flag up how our club Morton, without realising it, are not just helping people in the local community.
    17 points
  3. They send out monthly updates. I just pulled up the last one from the 16th. Here's a brief summary: Over 1,000 active members for the first time. Clear indication that they want to keep growing. Only a few cancellations even though we're in tough financial times. Statement of gratitude for all members old and new. Brian Bonar and Dalrada noted the large membership when deciding to come on board. Review of the last Volunteer Day with lewis McGrattan. Soliciting more volunteers for the future. Setting up an event for potential volunteers to learn more. Club has sold over 1,000 season tickets. Call to action to get an ST through Fanbase. Call to action for Viaplay Cup tickets and the upcoming hospitality offer for the Edinburgh game. This is the MCT newsletter, remember: MCT owns the club but does not formally direct or manage it, rather they (or rather we) nominate candidates who may then join the board of Greenock Morton FC Ltd. So what have Morton FC themselves been up to? Let's look at their latest communication - bear in mind this is weekly, rather than monthly: Ticket info for the game at County Ticket and hospitality info for the Edinburgh game Interview with Jack Bearne Call to action to get Fanbase to buy tickets Now, admittedly this is a bit thin, but again, it's weekly. Notice that one of the four items was an interview with a new signing, something the knicker-wetters think we'll never see again since we're apparently broke and the manager's chucked it. Meanwhile on the official site there's hospitality packages on sale for the league openers, a new announcement on subsidized season tickets for Morton in the Community (including an anonymous donation of over 3 grand - very nice, whoever did that). I'm not saying this is as good as it's ever going to be or there aren't little marginal improvements to be made, but people who think the club needs to stop the current plan and momentum to address a supposed recruitment crisis are hugely overreacting. We're in better financial shape than we've been in many a year, no debt hanging over us, we have almost a full squad in late July with at least one more reinforcement to come... what am I missing here? What's the lack of planning? What's the lack of updates? From what I can see both MCT and Morton are doing a good job of fulfilling their respective remits, and telling people about it.
    17 points
  4. I do. There’s a precedent being set here- Queen’s Park have serious ambitions about playing Premiership football and taking advantage of the rewards that entails, as do Morton. Morton have a capacity of around 11,500, which would probably be reduced to around 9,000 for a televised game, whilst Queen’s Park’s ground (if it is ever completed) will stand to have a capacity of around 2,000. By setting the precedent of allowing them to use a neighbouring ground that doesn’t belong to them, a whole new set of revenue streams is opening up to Queen’s Park that isn’t available to clubs such as Morton, Ayr United or Raith Rovers. We’re past the stage of blaming COVID for any delays in the opening of Lesser Hampden now- it’s been a shit show from start to finish and it’s down to Queen’s Park to deal with it, not for the SFA/SPFL to reward them with the opportunity to bring in massive crowds when clubs like ourselves are a restricted to what we’ve got. When Queen’s Park last played Rangers in league fixtures at Hampden, the attendances were 30,117 and 11,492 for Third Division games. That would be something like eleven times what they could bring in if they used the capacity they’d built for. This would be rewarding the folly of the Queen’s Park board for failing to get their house in order, and indirectly punishing their peers. Fuck them- they’ve made their bed, they should lie in it.
    17 points
  5. Since 2012, Rangers have put the names of every single person who put their hand in their pocket to save their club on every kit.
    17 points
  6. This is starting to get on my tits. Some fucking random make a stupid statement and all of a sudden it's fact. Fuck off. If Imrie leaves to go to Hamilton then so be it but until such times as he, or the club confirm it, can we please treat it as the pish it is. I see on Twitter the Morton fan's page demanding clarification on the rumours. Get fucked. If we're now insisting that every piece of shit rumour is addressed by the club we're going to need a full time shite shoveller. No rumours ever emerged that Gus McPherson was going to take over at Tinpot FC or Arse Biscuit United because he was a complete fucking charlatan. Dougie has done a good job but we finished below Hamilton so why on earth would they pay their manager 2 years compensation plus whatever Morton were entitled to?
    17 points
  7. The board really have to take a lot of credit. I can’t help but admire how they quietly get on with things behind the scenes when rumours are flying around to the contrary. There were a lot of folk convinced Grimshaw was away whilst they kept their counsel, and if we’re all being brutally honest, we’d have been delighted with just the one contract extension, never mind three. After all the rumours about Ambrose being suspended and seeing how well the club handled that, I had a suspicion they would be working away to get things sorted without reacting to press and social media gossip. There will be times that we lose out on guys who are out of contract, but it won’t be for the lack of trying to get them tied down and doing it without spending money they don’t have. It was only two years ago we made no signings in January, then brought in Justin Johnson, Kaziah Sterling and Jamie Butler after the window closed as we were battling relegation. The turnaround in the club in that time is absolutely wild.
    16 points
  8. The other spin off is that it allows the fans to identify a bit more with the players. The only positive impression I had about any of them was from a couple of pals that are also mates with Lewis Strapp. Other than that my impression a couple of months ago came from Lithgow and Muirhead cupping their ears to us. It’s not terribly important to a miserable old bastard like myself, but I think it can only be a good thing if it’s allowing younger fans to identify with their personalities and to see them having a laugh. I’ve never actually seen him name checked on the progress in terms of social media interaction, so it’s about time the lad Gareth got a well deserved pat on the back for his hard work. Also really pleasing to see Open Goal turning up at Cappielow today- again, not my favourites, but they’ve got a bloody big following, so a bit of nationwide exposure can only be a good thing.
    16 points
  9. I've tidied the thread up, with the main perpetrator now restricted to only posting in General Nonsense to avoid every match thread descending into the same bin fire.
    15 points
  10. It's a bit more difficult to put the finger on than with Falkirk- there are specific incidents and behaviours I can point to with that horrible lot, but with Partick it's not quite as obvious, although they really are an odious club. I hate to use current custodians of a club when describing my feelings towards that club as in most instances they're merely passing through, be it for 10 months or 10 years, but Ian McCall really is the prick's prick. Their behaviour after their completely justified relegation in 2020 was despicable, and he continued his snide underhand digs at Murdo McLennan and the SPFL when he appeared on Off the Ball the other week. I couldn't possibly have statistics to hand, but Partick seem to have their viewpoint represented in the media (particularly BBC Scotland) more than any other club out with the big five clubs. Had we been shite enough to be in tenth place when the season was called, I can't imagine for a second we'd have received anything like the sympathy they got. The whining about "only" getting a £150,000 grant when Championship teams got half a million was another belter. If they weren't crap, they wouldn't have gone down, deal with it. And banning the SPFL from attending their poxy little title presentation on a weekday morning last summer so they could have their own wee party and play the victim right to the end was Rangerseque behaviour if ever I'd seen it. Cunts. Speaking of Rangers, this is a club who, at a time they marketed themselves as the "One Team In Glasgow" complained that the SPFL "only" gave them one pre-split home game each against Rangers and Celtic in 2016-17. If they're the "One Team In Glasgow", why would an extra fixture against one of those two clubs be so important to them? The reality is, that the whole reason for their existence is not that they are Partick Thistle, it's that they're not Rangers or Celtic. They don't really represent a community, they're merely there for weird eccentrics, and to oppose everything Rangers and Celtic stand for. What a shite reason for being. Which brings me nicely onto my next point. The one thing they're there to do, they do it dreadfully. "Hullo, Hullo; how do you do? We hate the boys in royal blue; We hate the boys in white and green; So fuck the pope and fuck the queen." We've been over this many times in the past on here, but I've made my opinion on this little ditty perfectly clear every time. Hypocrisy at it's finest, and passed off as humour by a fanbase that get's away with it as they brand themselves as "Glasgow's Great Alternative". Nah, they're fucking scum, just like the other two. I absolute despise their fanbase with a passion, and a few of the Twitter freaks in particular. That lad trying to compare them to the "Arbroath fairytale" last season stank of a toddler crying for the attention of a parent who's trying to deal with the newborn baby brother or sister. Grow up. That guy from Greenock that always seems to try to engage with Morton fans on Twitter is another tosser, and I can think of two others who I won't dignify by alluding to their nonsense. Remember partickthistlelad on here a few years ago that used to come on and try to be pals and preach respect at us? Do one. Stupid gimmicks like that with the strip, and that Kingsley character obviously work well for them and I suppose and you can't begrudge a club doing something that maximises their revenue, but it really is grating. There was a time about 10-12 years ago I was quite annoyed with a lot of Morton fans for taking up their hospitality off for a Friday night game between the clubs (we took a 0-5 doing that night), with Partick coining in a good few quid from our fans when they could've quite easily gone to Morton's hospitality on another day. A few folk weren't happy with my pointing that out, but I'd like to think most of our fans see through their minging lot nowadays, or at least the ones who I speak to. They get my gate money and that's it. No pies, not programmes, nothing. Bare minimum, and I'd urge everyone else to do the same. The only two clubs I apply that rule for are them and Falkirk. Firhill- First of all, it's an absolute shitehole, We know Cappielow, and particularly the stand, isn't great, and away fans often complain about it. But every club provides away fans with some form of seating. They get no worse than our home fans get in the stand, but with 8,000ish seats between the Jackie Husband and the stand behind the goal, deliberately choose to put all away fans in the shitiest part of the ground, in spite of the available alternatives. And let's talk about that stand- is it possible to even take a shite in there? What happens if there's a fire? How on Earth do you get onto the pitch? The place is bogging, and even worse than our main stand in my opinion. How it gets a safety certificate is beyond me. And that bloody pitch. They managed to use that as an excuse for not lasting the pace in the title race last season, having coined in money from Queen's Park, and having had their fingers burnt by letting it out to Glasgow Warriors a decade previous. And why did Morton and Hamilton Accies, for example, two teams who managed to HOUND them on that bog in the second half of last season, cope with that tattie field? Was it perhaps that Partick weren't actually very good, rather than the pitch taking them down to their opponents' level? There have of course been other thoroughly odious individuals associated with their rotten club- most recently Richard Foster got on my tits, but guys such as Derek Johnstone, Bertie Auld, Adam Strachan, Chic Charnley and Gerry Collins spring immediately to mind. Arseholes to a man. Did anyone find McCall's "dugmeat" comment funny last season? If Billy Brown or Gary Naismith said something like that, there's no way they'd get that sort of reaction from the media. It wasn't funny at all. I saw a Dundee United fan on P&B today describing them as try hards- nail firmly on the head. They're a bogging wee club, get them in the bin.
    15 points
  11. That was absolutely immense. Dunfermline were abysmal and McPake is an appalling manager, but so much of how poor they were was down to us making them look bad. The pressing killed them with Wilson, Crawford and Oakley utterly dominating the game, but every single player in a Morton shirt was excellent today. The second half in particular was just ridiculously good, Blues had a spell where he turned into Iniesta and created a tremendous chance every single time he touched the ball. If that had been 7 or 8 it would have been a fair reflection of the game. We are firmly in the driving seat for the playoffs now. We will inevitably lose a game at some point and we'll see how the team respond when it happens, but the way they're playing there's really no reason to doubt their ability to respond to a setback. I will be stunned if I ever see a better Morton manager than Dougie Imrie. The job he's doing is fucking ridiculous.
    14 points
  12. Previous, gutless, loser managers - see Gus 'slaphead' McPherson, James Grady, Jonatan Johansson or Raymond 'Ray' McKinnon - would be looking for a lap of honour and an end of the ground named after them for achieving such a margin of result with pishy wee Morton in second tier Scottish football. In stark contrast, an ambitious and highly competent manager calls out performance levels, when he knows that the underlying confidence level in the squad is strong enough to respond effectively. While on the longest unbeaten streak at this level since the 1980s. The contrast between a real fucking manager with goals and standards to the parade of imposters we have had previously couldn't be more stark right now. Long may it continue. That said, the club needs to take note of the key attributes that took Imrie over the top in the selection process, for when the inevitable happens and Sir Douglas moves to a (potentially much) higher level. If he had the player CV of 'Scott Brown, football manager - 'ambitious' club' then he'd already be the Hibs or Aberdeen manager.
    13 points
  13. Didn’t want to reply to this after the game last night, because the majority of us were in a good mood and enjoying a fine, hard-fought victory. Who the fuck do you think you are to be telling folk what they can and can’t “imply”, when you threw a bone out yourself yesterday, and had another foul mouthed rant at the manager hidden with a post stating that it won’t be tolerated in the Partick match thread little over a month ago? Over the last month or so, all you’ve done on here, and across on that other site is troll, double down on your rancid opinions, abuse the manager, ignore responses that have proved yourself to be wrong at almost every turn. I can live with that, it only goes to make a fool of you, but your shite yesterday got right under my skin, and I’m not having you telling me off for taking offence to it. There’s little doubt that that post you made further up this page was, at the very least, designed to get a reaction. Well done, it’s perhaps the first thing you’ve succeeded on in getting one from me. Let’s not kid ourselves though, nobody’s laughing along with you for getting your bite. You’ve shown yourself as what you are, something nobody had any doubt about in the first place anyway. You’re not controversial, you’re not edgy, you’re just a complete helmet.
    13 points
  14. Absolutely fantastic stuff today, on an afternoon that a lot went against us. Whilst going down to ten men was a massive blow, the importance of losing Wilson shouldn’t be understated. Oakley was outstanding until his red, and I really did fear for us at that point. I’d need a look at it again, but from where I was it was no more than a booking. Never like seeing a referee pull a red out so quickly- perhaps he’ll feel he made the right call, but I’d imagine most wouldn’t bring the red out having taken a bit of time over it. Some excellent performances all over the park, but to single out a few- terrific slog from Muirhead under extremely difficult circumstances. Gillespie‘s an excellent player, his game management and ability to draw free kicks out of teams is a huge asset, especially when down to ten men when you’re most reliable route to goal is through set pieces. Mullen was again outstanding. A real calming influence on his defence and in spite of Queen’s Park being pretty rancid he wasn’t fazed with anything thrown at him. I can’t remember a Morton goalkeeper whose distribution I’ve been so happy with in years. Strapp produced a performance for the ages. Absolutely outstanding individual performance from a player who really shouldn’t be anywhere near this level. We might only have him for a few more weeks, let’s make sure we enjoy him. And finally, the ball boy at the Wee Dublin End. I’ve called for years for us to have wee arseholes doing that job and slowing the play down when we need them too. Never seen a boy that’s been so downright lazy in his work and make me so happy in being so. Well done young man!
    13 points
  15. Where to begin with that utter horseshite? The most obvious fail: 1) The Celtic game. This was already accounted for in last season's budget - including the addition of new players at that time, and the club recording a profit for the second time this century. You don't get to count that revenue again this season - that's not how finance works. Ditto the Dalrada investment - only ongoing funding and sponsorship contribute to this season's budget. 2) You point to improvements on the revenue side without even once considering the other side of the coin: an inflationary environment where costs have risen by 10% across the board - and likely much higher for utilities. Simply retaining existing squad players increases costs for the club: they will quite rightly want an increase in their wages based on performance as well as their own bills to pay. The club's balance of income to outgoings is a constantly moving target - the costs do not magically stay the same from one season to the next, least of all right now. 3) 'Back the manager or lose him'. Utter nonsense - the reality is that the club will lose the manager regardless because he is a young, ambitious and clearly effective coach. Imrie is under contract for the foreseeable future though and signed up under conditions that were far more difficult than right now. While Imrie has every right to fight for the needs of the first team squad, we need to ensure that there will be a club years and decades after the current or any other manager has gone - that's the primary goal that GMFC has to ensure, every single year. Which leads us to the logical black hole in your foot-stomping tantrum: what is your causal explanation for the current budget stand-off? Do you believe that the GMFC board are squirrelling money away in illicit offshore accounts? Are they asset strippers looking to run the club into the ground? Why else are they withholding funds that you and others insist are definitely just sitting around waiting to be used on wunderkinds like 'Frankie Deane'?
    13 points
  16. Great, isn’t it? I couldn’t have imagined when walking out of the ground that glorious day in April 2019 just how things would have gone from bad to so much worse for them to the extent that they’re realistically looking at a fourth year in that division, with another monied club coming up from League Two and ready to storm past them towards next year’s title. Even when you consider how much of a shit show we’ve been for most of those intervening years, the Falkirk soap opera’s been fantastic viewing to soften the blow. There’s always someone worse off than yourself, and I for one couldn’t have cherry picked a bigger shower of bastards for that fate to befall. Get it up them.
    13 points
  17. In case you missed it, Hearts are third in the Premiership, beat the champions last weekend, have in their possession the country's top goalscorer (whom we managed very well), and while we did indeed have a positive spell at the start of the second period, that was game management on their part, knowing they had reinforcements for the closing stages when we would - without any bench options - inevitably tire. Their goal was a counterattack and if you go all-out after that there's only going to be one ending: they throw people forward to catch the out-balls and you're screwed. It's just nasty to say Imrie doesn't trust the guys he's signed or whom he chooses to put on the bench. Again, this is the third-best team in the country. He's set our guys - who are a mix of good Championship players, former top flight players at the end of their careers, and youths - out with a plan, and throwing warm bodies at a plan for the sake of doing so is bad for all concerned. With no forwards on the bench, whom would you have put on with five minutes to go to hold the ball up against Sibbick and whoever the other one was at center-back? Was it: Jack Bearne, a winger Lewis McGrattan, a winger and midfielder Michael Garrity, a midfielder (and a diminutive one at that) or Sam Murdoch, a goalkeeper? Remember, everyone was saying Broadfoot was done since he was playing at LL level, and Imrie has - with some admitted road bumps along the way - got both him and Power playing well. Shankland was left in no doubt whom he was up against tonight and said as much in his post-match interview. Will Broadfoot get any recognition for that - again, Shankland is the best striker in the country right now, and will probably go to the Euros? Or will he just get slated for not scoring a last-minute equalizer? In a game where we'd been on the back foot for the majority, except early in the second half, Broadfoot did an admirable job keeping them to relatively few open chances. He deserves credit for this - and so does Imrie for signing and playing him! Long story short: if Imrie didn't trust Bearne he wouldn't be here, and if he didn't trust McGrattan and Garrity they wouldn't be getting minutes at all. Instead Bearne was signed and the latter two have played plenty, considering their ages. McGrattan has appeared in the vast majority of games this season, and Garrity (two years younger) is being carefully bedded in. They're getting an appropriate amount of football for the time in their careers and this is particularly true when you're up against, again, the third-best team in the country and a legendary Scottish goalkeeper who despite his age deserves to go to the Euros this summer. Leaving aside certain attention-seeking fuds (I do not count you as one of these) there really does seem to be this idea that Imrie's somehow throwing away wins by refusing to "trust" young players. It's absolutely idiotic. What Imrie knows, as a guy who came relatively late to the senior game, is that sometimes experience is what's needed. Just look at Queen's Park: they thought they could play a bunch of youngsters and have them play it out from the back, and that ended up with relegation form. Now they have a couple of old heads and they look fine, and the young players they have will be better for the experience. It's just not the case that you can go up against Hearts and throw the kids at them and come away with a better outcome than we had tonight, and people need to stop acting as though Imrie's sandbagging us by refusing to make Logan O'Boy captain. tl;dr: Scottish fans' fetish for putting the kids on is stupid. It's not borne out by the stats or simply by facing the right way at games. Imrie did nothing wrong. We held out own against a team that will send at the very least two players to the Euros in summer and will play in Europe next year, and we did it without our most vital player. There is absolutely zero scope to criticize Imrie for this game and everyone who does so should be hanged in real life.
    12 points
  18. It’s such a tiny thing but was really pleased to see this pop up on my phone when I got home from Kelty - we really have got our act together now. Working with Fanbase has been a great decision from the club and has made it much easier to get tickets home and away.
    12 points
  19. Imrie having a go at Lyon in the tele for his comments about leaving through the back door last week. Says although the information wasn't released, Lyon actually left the club in January and got a good payoff to pursue another career and went to Annan again because he could only play for us or them this season. Also says multiple managers gave him a chance and if he looks himself in the mirror and asks himself if he did enough to play for Greenock Morton then deep down he will know the answer. You come at the king then you better not miss
    12 points
  20. Never thought I'd be saying this but as soon as I clear some personal debts I'll be signing up. I had little faith in the fan ownership model but MCT are proving me wrong after an indifferent start. Well done to all involved.
    12 points
  21. Not too hard to spot the subtext of "Billy Dodds is a bellend" there.
    12 points
  22. 12 points
  23. Their capitulation as a club is nothing short of magnificent. Truly magnificent. Horrible, horrible bastards.
    12 points
  24. I’m surprised to see no mention of the decision not to appoint a chairman to the board, but to take turns in who has the deciding vote at boardroom level- what an absolute farce. I’ve made it clear in the last few months that I’m concerned about the lack of accountability in the running of the club, and this policy goes no way in easing those concerns. A display of leadership and a preparation to be held individually accountable when things go to shit would go some way to easing those concerns, but am I surprised by the musical chairs policy? Nope, not in the slightest. This strikes me as the board operating a protection racket to look after themselves. The younger guys have something nice for a CV and the old guard can tell their acquaintances up the golf club/bowling club/lodge that they’re the director of a football club to impress them, whilst not actually having to face up to the rank and file- unless of course the questions are collated and vetted by the SLO, and the tricky ones filed away in the nearest bin. It is of course no surprise that the person I believe to be the main organ grinder; Mr. Ritchie, was nowhere to be seen on the video- the cynic in me would suggest a Warren Hawke-style holiday or sickie from him when the club’s AGM comes around. We’re more likely to see Lord Lucan crossing into the box for Maddie McCann to head in the winner at Hampden in May than we are to get answers off of him. There’s been a lot of hilarity about the farcical events at Falkirk’s Q&A the other week, but let’s not kid ourselves, Morton’s current board simply would not put themselves in the position to be lambasted by their support the way the Falkirk lot did. Yes, they came out of it looking foolish, but at the moment, our own board are coming across as self-serving cowards who aren’t prepared to take the rough with the smooth. I’m not sure what’s worse.
    12 points
  25. 0-5. One more goal from us and they'll be able to count them on one hand
    11 points
  26. I’ve just pulled five examples from this thread that contradict what you’re saying, and haven’t looked across any other social media platforms, where I’m pretty sure I’d find a few more. At which point are you going to accept that your interpretation of what happened yesterday appears fanciful at best? Your point about fans being realistic and turning up so close to kick off doesn’t cut it when we’re talking about fans turning up a full 15-20 minutes before the game starts. At £22 a skull, or as part of a £300-odd season ticket which about a third of that crowd committed to months ago, and with the third-lowest average crowds in the division, Morton aren’t in the position to be telling folk to take an extra half hour out of their leisure time to make things easier for the club, and they’re certainly not in the position to come onto social media after the match and blame the folk who so generously put their hands in their pockets to support them. I entered the ground at 2.30 yesterday- quite deliberately as I anticipated a shit show at the turnstiles and it still took me five minutes to get in, but with so many accounts from different folk differing from yours, the only conclusion that an objective observer can come to is that you’re talking shite. I don’t understand whether you see this as playing devil’s advocate, or are sticking up for your old pal Hawke (who doesn’t, and never did give a shiny shite about anything you had to say at any point in the past, never mind now), but given that this has happened every time we’ve had a relatively big game since 2017, there has to be a point that even you will concede that drastic action needs to be taken, here. For a club that is so dependant on folk turning up at the gates, this simply can’t go on, and your stance on this isn’t just unhelpful, it is in fact damaging to the club to take onboard such stances if they wish to find a resolution to this.
    11 points
  27. Following on from the comments on the match thread yesterday, I feel it merits a thread on it's own to discuss travelling away in this division- an experience that's proving more and more miserable with every passing season, and I feel every club, including and perhaps especially ourselves should be looked at for their merits or lack of. I expect someone (probably a Partick fan) will stumble across this and say how dare a Morton fan complain about other clubs' facilities, but we're paying customer's and not responsible for our club's failings, although by challenging them, we can hopefully see an improvement for all. Let's be honest, Cappielow's looked upon as perhaps the worst away game of the 42 in Scotland, and whilst I enjoy seeing away fans out in the pissing rain in the Wee Dublin End, or whining about the lack of legroom in the main stand, we should really be looking at alternatives to make going to football an experience that's actually worth the £22 you pay into Cappielow. So, with no further ado, the ten clubs in our division: Airdrie We haven't visited Airdrie since the glorious decima-winning season that will go down in folklore of course, and are due to visit in a fortnight. A soulless stadium that is a product of it's time, but not lacking in the basic facilities with decent bogs and catering and a passable bar inside the ground IIRC. It perhaps needs a bit of TLC, but nothing to really complain about. Given that it's been eight years, I'll update in two weeks time. Arbroath My motivation for starting this topic, and a real sad state of affairs. When Arbroath were promoted in 2019 I was buzzing. I had fond memories of visits from years gone by, and for a day out, it really is the best away day in the country. Train up, arrive at the train station at the top of the town and stop by some of the many delectable hostelries en route to the ground, with special mentions for the Foundry (now deceased but doing a Rangers in time for our return in April) and the Tutties, which, as a football ground pub, pisses all over the Norseman. But arriving in the ground to get greeted with that nonsense yesterday was ridiculous. What was (and still is) a charming ground, ruined by segregation policies after a few years above what was their natural level. There never used to be any segregation at Gayfield, and not a hint of trouble. Why now? You of course had the option of avoiding the rain by shoehorning everyone into the stand akin to Cappielow's at what was advertised at an extra £2. I'll also add that Morton advertised ground admission was £20 but when purchasing a ticket online we were asked to pay £21, but that could be Morton's mistake. But the explanation that it was to allow home fans behind the goal they would be attacking in the second half just goes to show the complete disregard away fans were treated with. The attitude of the head steward to the complaints of the fans was also poor- acting like a school master disciplining unruly kids when in actual fact he was paid to make the experience as pleasant as it could be for paying customers. When they did eventually relent 20 minutes into the game, I got the impression they expected some form of gratitude for giving us the bare minimum of a bit of shelter when we'd already been soaked for 20-30 minutes anyway. Catering's good, although I didn't find any black pudding in my pie yesterday. The steak and black pudding pies from a few years ago were much better. Ayr United Another product of it's time, but in a very different way to Airdrie. The shallow terrace at Ayr doesn't make for the best views, but it's not bad. A comfortable terrace that allows for a decent atmosphere to be created, although I await to see if away fans will be catered for anywhere in their new stand. I've not bought anything to eat at their ground in years, but my memory of it was that it was a bit overpriced. I'd probably have more against them if we were restricted to one end of the stand and the wee enclosure at the front like some smaller supports get, but it's not bad at all. Toilets are of course, very poor. The first club to introduce e-tickets at this level, which was quite widely criticised at the time, but has become the norm and works pretty well. It would be nice to be allowed into Cameron's Bar, but you can't have everything. Dundee United A really crap experience when we visited earlier in the season, which I believe I commented on at the time. First of all, the most expensive ground in the division, perhaps unsurprisingly, but there are other elements that made this such a shite awayday. The week we visited, United made a bit of a thing about improving the atmosphere at Tannadice, while simultaneously indicating to Morton that nobody would be allowed in the away end with a drum. Now, I'm far too old to be indulging in any of that myself, but if the young team like it, why spoil their fun? Does it really provide a competitive advantage to do that? Or are they just being arseholes? The catering and toilets were also crap. One tiny hut which provided a far more limited menu than that for the home fans (going by my United supporting mates' experiences) and is difficult to get to get away from once served as you're squeezing past those still queuing. It's a similar scenario with the bogs, which are basically in a dungeon with one way in and out, and no hand drier, so once they run out of paper towels, you're fucked/ Opening one section is also something that seems exclusive to away fans in Scotland. We didn't take many to Tannadice that day, but why shoehorn them all into one section when home crowds, even if sparse, can sit wherever they like? Does it save that much on stewarding and cleaning costs? Decent pubs around the ground though, Dundee's generally a pretty good day out if you don't bother going to the game. Dunfermline Dunfermline's inconsistent. Fine when you're behind the goal, often only get a couple of sections, but it's never that much of a problem. I don't like it so much when they put us in the main stand, but it's not the end of the world, and the season we had a section of the stand on the graveyard side of the ground I felt was fantastic. I wish they'd put us there all the time. The catering, specifically Stephen's steak bridies are outstanding, and there's no really issues with buying tickets online or the toilet facilities. Used to be a pain in the arse waiting in a long queue to buy a physical ticket outside the ground, but we've moved on from that. Downsides are that it involves visiting Fife, which is never one for the bucket list, and the bar at the ground. On occasion you might get into a separate bar in the main stand if it suits them- otherwise it's a covert operation to get in. Similar policy to Dundee United with the drum- someone call the Fun Police. Probably the best in the division all told, though. Inverness Crap. The novelty about visiting that place has well-and-truly worn off in the years since they were admitted to the league. There's often a disdain from police and stewards towards away fans on arrival, based on the assumption that they're all hammered after the long journey. I've often seen guys looking a bit jolly getting knocked back just out of nastiness. Very much like bouncers knocking back teenagers from nightclubs just to satisfy their egos. I get that if folk are hammered then you've got to draw the line, but a more common sense approach could have been used a number of times. Admittedly at the 0-5 defeat in August 2019 there, our behaviour was pretty dreadful, but it could've been helped by not having such an antagonistic approach in the first place to folk wanting to stand that the back of the stand without blocking anyone's views. In the game early last season, my mates and I stood at the wee area between the stand and the catering/toilet area (not too dissimilar to the bit at Somerset Park) before kick off and were shepherded into the stand for kick off because "it's an all seater stadium). On a beautiful day, with less than 100 Morton fans there, why force them into a stand when they could enjoy a bit of sunshine while watching the game? Added to that, every seat in the stand was filthy anyway. Eventually they relented like yesterday, but they're just making their own problems in the first place. Toilets and catering aren't anything to write home about- pretty basic, but no real complaints on that front. Morton We have to do much better. There's certain things I can't comment on, such as catering and toilets in the away end of course, but we know about the problems with the main stand and legroom, a legacy from the Hugh Scott era. Legroom's a common complaint with most away fans, but it always seems like Raith in particular, probably because they're regular visitors who rarely get any other sections opened. I much enjoyed seeing the Partick fans moaning about the puddles in the Wee Dublin End when we beat then in November last year, but let's be honest, it's poor. It wasn't uncommon about 10 years or so back to see away fans getting a section of the Cowshed, and there are clearly still provisions that allow it. Much as it's easy to stick two fingers up to the away fans and tell them to pay up and shut up, we need to get our own house in order. I'm not asking for millions to be spent in order to bring the place up to the lap of luxury, or even offer the best facilities in this league, but if Morton expect our own fans to be well treated on the road, we have to up our game. We can't of course ignore our stewards- a constant problem for home fans and they don't carry a good reputation amongst our visitors. It was a good laugh from the Cowshed seeing them battling with presumably pissed up Bo'ness fans, but have any of us stopped to ask what their role in the disorder was? They may not have been at fault at all, but there's enough history to suggest that they might not have been completely innocent in that carry on. Hopefully with the land that's been bought and excavated, there'll be some form of club facility opening in the no-too-distant future, which will allow away fans in, unlike at Somerset Park, but for now of course, we can't include the Norseman as a positive for any visitors. Only positive I can give us is ease of ticketing purchase through Fanbase, but this is only a recent development. And even still, advertising all away tickets for the Wee Dublin End, even when away fans are being housed in the stand has caused confusion, and can put folk off when the forecast is rain. A lot of work to be done. Partick A bit of a mixed bag. While the fans of the two clubs clearly don't get on, I suspect it extends beyond that to boardroom level. Considering Partick are blessed with fairly plentiful modern facilities (down to their own efforts it has to be added) there's no real need to house away fans in a crumbling old relic of a stand such as their main stand when the crowd is projected at 3-4000. Why do that other than a GIRUY? If our away away end toilets are as bad as theirs then we've got a hell of a lot of work to do. And I'm still not sure what would happen in there in the event of a fire. Moving us from one side of the stand to the other a month ago was another strange one. Why move the away fans to a section that's got a more restricted view than they had in the section you've now left empty? Perhaps that'll change after the fallout from Brian Graham's red card. I believe it's the same caterers (Pie Sports) that we use, but with slightly more variety, and that away fans are allowed into the Aitken Suite, but can't comment on either really, given that I refuse to give them a penny more than my admission. Obviously relatively easy access for anyone via public transport and plenty of amenities around it in terms of pubs etc. Pity you often see Partick fans in said pubs. Queen's Park Anyone who was stuck in Greenock with the flooding that day should count their blessings- grim. Hampden gets a hard press at the best of times, and they shouldn't even be allowed to play there, but that was piss. First of all, I'm in no doubt that until the Telegraph kicked up a stink, they were quite happy to sit back and tell everyone tough luck, the tickets were non-refundable. Add to that the airport-style security scanning every single person as they go into the ground was way over the top, and in normal circumstances (i.e. when most of our support couldn't get out their street, never mind to the game) would cause massive delays getting into a ground that is 1/50th full. Can't really complain about the facilities, although it is the main stand of the national stadium, so it should be good. Catering was ridiculously overpriced- I took one look at the menu boards and walked away out of principle. Like Firhill, easy enough to get to and plenty amenities around it of course. Raith Rovers Another ground that's a product of it's time and is a vacuum for atmosphere. No real issue with any of the facilities. Bogs and catering are fine, similar to behind the goal at Dunfermline in that you get a couple of sections but aren't really shoehorned, but I just find it totally soulless. Can't complain about buying a ticket through Fanbase, and the Novar Bar a couple of streets away is a gem of a pub. The atmosphere's probably improved this season as the locals come crawling out the woodwork with their good form, so that's maybe not a relevant criticism anymore. Whilst we're fortunate enough to always get the stand behind the goal, I've seen examples of smaller supports getting put in that bizarre main stand, which must be really bad. Also, you've got to go to Fife. Anyone else got anything to add? I'd like to think that, as a fan-owned club, we can lean on MCT and Morton ensure repeats of yesterday's nonsense don’t happen, and that we can look at our own failings in order to find ways to improve. Capitanus made a point to me years ago that people in this country all have their consumer rights until they either enter a football ground or a licenced premises. I'd include public transport in that since he made that comment. A real grim state of a affairs, that shouldn't be allowed to happen, but I suspect will only get worse, as I don't think that nonsense legislation that was proposed a few months ago not to be slightly amended and rear it's ugly head again.
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  28. That was terrific yesterday, the most impressive of three excellent wins in a week. The start was superb and we were unfortunate not to be 2-0 up, but there was a noticeable dip after Wilson's injury. No fault of Power or Gillespie, but the two of them together just aren't going to provide the same energy as one of them beside Wilson, Blues or Crawford and it let Queen's Park settle into the game a bit, for all that we were still the better team. The red card is a travesty of a decision, it's a textbook cynical yellow with no question of a red card. You wouldn't have thought you'd be seeing an even worse decision within 10 minutes, but the penalty award was an absolute disgrace. Luckily it was a terrible effort and justice was done but full credit to Mullen who had a great game. You naturally feared the worst needing to survive a whole half with 10 men, but what a shift every single one of them put in. Obviously you're on edge in that scenario, but ultimately they created just one clear cut chance with the free header they should have done better with, while it's inevitable they're going to get crosses in and someone is going to lose a runner once when you're under that amount of pressure. They also had the long range shot which saw Mullen pull off another great save, but again it's inevitable that one of those will go on target eventually when we're forcing them to shoot from that range as they couldn't play through us. Ultimately we looked as much like scoring in the second half as they did, and that's a huge testament to the defensive shift. Muirhead looked like he was done in after an hour but time and time again he would burst into life to take us up the park and eat up seconds winning throw-ins or corners. I thought that was Blues' best game for Morton as well, he was everywhere defensively. Time and again he was the one flinging his head in or getting his laces through the ball in our box. To suddenly be sitting only four points off the top four after where we were a week ago is wild. All three wins have been a bit different as well which is another really encouraging sign. You've had the game hanging in the balance at 1-1 at Arbroath where they've had their own chances to win it: earlier in the season we could easily have lost that, but we were the ones being clinical when our chance came and getting the win. You have the dominant performance against Inverness where we struggle to find the second goal, again you maybe get sucker punched if confidence is lower and you get desperate over failing to take your chances to kill the game, but they kept at it and eventually got that second, then held on once it went back 2-1. Then you have yesterday where it's proper backs to the wall to cling onto a lead, going a whole half a man down having played in midweek when our opposition didn't. Three different types of test, three games that could all easily have seen us only taking one point or even ending up losing, and coming away with nine points. That's absolutely fantastic and bodes very well. That we're still only two points from 9th tells us how urgent it was for the turnaround to start when it did, but we've got genuine reasons for optimism that we can continue this now rather than simply clinging to blind hope.
    11 points
  29. (Photo- GBR Photos) Raymond’s Revolution, Resignation and Relegation By Russell Gordon Transfer deadline day, be it at the end of August or January, is in the modern era of football a date marked in the diary of fans of every football club, and often a day that we all go through the emotional ringer, as we hope to hold onto star players that bigger clubs are sniffing around, shift on guys who haven’t lived up to expectations, or bring in the final pieces of the jigsaw to allow for the season’s ambitions to be fulfilled. But for Morton, the 31st of August 2018, five years ago today, was a deadline day like no other. Morton had gone through quite a summer of transition- Jim Duffy was relieved of his duties with a year remaining of his contract in spite of a relatively successful four years in the Cappielow hot seat, taking Morton up from League One at the first attempt and enjoying two relatively successful years in the Championship before a somewhat mediocre season which led many on the terraces, and perhaps the inner sanctum of Cappielow to believe that he had gone a bit stale and it was time for a change. Added to that was the sad passing of Morton’s benefactor, and former Chairman, Douglas Rae in June. With his son Crawford having taken over the role shortly before his father’s death, the decision was made to push the boat out for promotion to the Premiership. Season tickets were significantly reduced from around £300 to £200 and the club enjoyed extremely healthy sales, and the man entrusted with guiding Morton to the land of milk and honey was former Dundee United boss Ray McKinnon, a bit of a nemesis of Duffy’s in his Raith Rovers days, taking twelve points from twelve against a very good Morton side in 2015-16, before moving onto a less successful spell at the poisoned chalice that is the home dugout at Tannadice. The Rebuild And Start To The Season With some of the more high-profile stalwarts of the Duffy era, such as Ricki Lamie, Jai Quitongo, Thomas O’Ware, Gary Harkins and the mercurial Ross Forbes heading onto pastures new, McKinnon set about assembling a squad for the challenge ahead. Former ‘Ton heroes Chris Millar and Jim McAlister returned to their old stomping ground, although questions were raised about the decision to allow Andy Murdoch’s contract to expire for him to head onto newly promoted Ayr United. Keeper Ryan Scully came in to dislodge Derek Gaston, along with defenders Reghan Tumilty, Gregor Buchanan, Rory McKeown and Kerr Waddell, as well as Charlie Telfer from Dundee United and Motherwell loanee Ross McLean, and the marquee signing of Denny Johnstone from Birmingham City. The League Cup campaign wasn’t great, but could be put down to McKinnon’s new squad taking time to gel. Having led through a Michael Tidser free kick at Somerset Park, a Lawrence Shankland hat-trick sent the ‘Ton faithful home with a bloody nose. They were effectively out the tournament following a 1-2 defeat at Firhill a few days later before resounding victories over the group’s makeweights, Stenhousemuir and Albion Rovers. The league campaign started with a disappointing 2-2 draw with Queen of the South at Cappielow, with Morton giving up a two-goal lead through Tidser and McLean in the last 20 minutes to settle for a point. However, a Chris Millar double against Alloa gave Morton their first three points on the road. After a shadow side exited the Challenge Cup at Dumbarton, title favourites Ross County were next to visit Cappielow and it was Morton’s turn to come from behind. It took Tidser only a couple of minutes to cancel out Don Cowie’s opener on the hour, and a Bob McHugh goal sent Morton to the top of the league. Brilliant, what could possibly go wrong? A 2-1 win over title favourites, and eventual champions Ross County was the highlight of McKinnon's tenure, a mere six days before jumping ship. (Photo- GBR Photos) Deadline Day Departures The following Friday was a busy day for the club- after a morning training session, the squad descended on Cappielow for their annual photo session, with the supposedly affable gaffer adding in a very nice touch of asking the background staff that often go unnoticed to join in an extended group photo in a show of solidarity that appeared to show that this was a tight-knit group, all pulling in the same direction. Not a bit of it. After what by their deluded expectations was a poor season in 2017-18, Paul Hartley’s haphazard recruitment saw Falkirk suffering a very slow start to the new season, and the former Morton loanee was handed his P45. The Bairns had been rumoured to be after Ayr boss Ian McCall, but those rumours quickly dissipated and at some point on that glorious late summer’s day, the wheels were put in motion for a move to Grangemouth for McKinnon and his assistant, Darren Taylor, after only three months and three league games at Morton. Crawford Rae noted in his Club Statement that having left the Parklea training ground in high spirits after the morning session, and discussed the approach and tactics for the following day’s trip to Firhill, he was called by Falkirk’s representatives with a view to appointing his manager, an approach that was swiftly rebuffed. Soon enough, the story was out, and despite McKinnon and his pal’s smiling faces in front of the cameras, it was straight out of Cappielow and off to meet their prospective new employers. Within six hours of that first phone call, Falkirk announced their new manager, none other than former Morton boss, Raymond McKinnon. The reaction from the Morton support, and from inside Cappielow was one of fury, whilst the Falkirk support took great pleasure in their club’s ability, at what at the time they saw as being at their lowest ebb, to come in and help themselves to the manager of a comparatively high-flying rival. It was ironic to see that on the day, Falkirk also added Rangers striker Zak Rudden to their squad. One wonders if the striker would have been on McKinnon’s radar to bring to Morton had he not decided to jump ship without notice? McKinnon looked to have assembled what had the makings of a squad that could have challenged at the top end of the table before his abrupt departure. (Photo- GBR Photos) What Happened Next? With a makeshift coaching staff led by John Sutton and Derek Anderson on the touchline, Morton would lose 0-1 at Firhill before appointing former Finnish international Jonatan Johansson as McKinnon’s replacement and a descent down the table ensued. In truth, Johansson’s defensive style never endeared him to the Morton support, and with his wife helping to make a club that never lacked comedy value even more of a soap opera with her social media interactions, Cappielow wasn’t a happy place for the majority of the season. One happy day though, was the return of McKinnon with his Falkirk team, seven weeks after his departure. With the Greenock Telegraph stoking the resentment in the Morton support by handing out red cards with McKinnon’s image alongside the message “Judas”, Falkirk planned an alternative route to Cappielow (whatever on Earth that may have been!) for “security reasons” but the only bloody noses they got were on the park, as Bob McHugh’s goal sent them back home pointless. Greg Kiltie's magnificent goal gave Morton the lead over McKinnon's Falkirk on a bad tempered night in Greenock, but the Bairn's battled back to deny Morton full points. (Photo- GBR Photos) Both teams continued to struggle as the season progressed, although Falkirk did have spells that you felt they were beginning to click only to prove false dawns. A couple of draws between the teams, 0-0 in December in Grangemouth and 1-1 in a bad-tempered affair marred by crowd trouble at Cappielow, saw both clubs in a relegation battle alongside Queen of the South, Partick and Alloa. With Alloa being that season’s “Arbroath” for Morton, it looked as though the points the ‘Ton were leaking to the Wasps could prove to be their downfall, but on a critical night that Morton collected a solid point at Somerset Park, Falkirk looked to have claimed a vital three points with a late winner at Palmerston. However, with it taking an age to clear the celebrating Falkirk fans from the pitch, Queens’ went straight up the park and won a penalty, Stephen Dobbie converting to deny Falkirk at the death. But the relegation battle really came to a head when Morton visited Falkirk on the third last game of the season in what looked pre-match to be a winner-takes-all encounter. A defeat would have sent Morton to the bottom of the table, but we needn’t have had any fears, as second half goals from Kilmarnock loanee Greg Kiltie and Charlie Telfer rooted Falkirk to the bottom of the table with only a trip to Tannadice and the visit of champions Ross County remaining. Kiltie and Charlie Telfer were the architects of Falkirk's downfall on a memorable afternoon in Grangemouth as Morton delivered some sweet retribution on their former boss to effectively send their hosts into League One. (Photo-GBR Photos) McKinnon had taken Ross McLean to Falkirk in January, and had been rumoured to be after Morton’s star man Michael Tidser, but the midfielder’s excellent performance contributed more than most to Morton’s fine victory. In the following two weeks, Morton secured their survival and incredibly, a top half finish before Johansson resigned on a bizarre final day which saw the Morton support toasting Falkirk’s relegation alongside the Dundee United fans, who had Dundee’s demotion to the Championship on the same day to enjoy. Not slow to immerse themselves in Falkirk and McKinnon’s misery, the Tele’s Twitter response to their penultimate day reverse at Tannadice was succinct and more effective than anything I could ever say in a couple of thousand words about the whole affair. “Lol” indeed. For McKinnon, it was relegation despite victory over County on the final day, before he helped himself to the out-of-contract Buchanan, Tidser and Telfer from Morton. But Falkirk were found guilty of tapping McKinnon and forced to pay an SPFL fine and compensation to Morton, coming to an estimated total of £100,000. For what? A place in League One. Michael Tidser's magnificent performance helped Morton to a vital victory in that crucial match in Grangemouth, but the decision to move onto Falkirk proved to be a foolish one from a footballing perspective. (Photo- GBR Photos) Where Are They Now? Of all the parties involved, Morton are undoubtedly in the best place. A club mired in controversy for years have settled under fan ownership and have finally got a manager in the club who has it upwardly mobile, despite the odd setback like last weekend. Falkirk on the other hand, are still festering in League One for a fifth successive season, having seen Raith Rovers, Partick Thistle, Cove Rangers, Queen’s Park, Dunfermline Athletic and Airdrie all winning promotion at their expense. They’ve seen boardroom shenanigans at almost every turn, often in the full view of the Scottish football public, and massive losses year on year as they throw money at promotion. Perhaps this year will be their year, but at what cost? Make your own mind up whether that is a statement or a question. Most of his players, and the subsequent ones to leave Morton for Falkirk, haven’t enjoyed any real success, with Michael Tidser’s short lived spell being the most high profile. Buchanan and McLean have dropped down the divisions, and only Telfer is playing Championship football, ironically having won promotion at Falkirk’s expense last season. For McKinnon, the axe fell in November 2019, the first of a number of Falkirk bosses who have failed to return them to the Championship. He did however, move onto Queen’s Park, where their relative riches allowed him a more pleasant passage to League One than his previous journey, but he was removed from his post before the season started. Currently the manager of Forfar Athletic, it’s clear a leopard doesn’t change his spots, as he appeared to resign from his Station Park role over the summer to take up the position of Duncan Ferguson’s number two at Forest Green Rovers, before Big Dunc was given his jotters, forcing McKinnon to go back with his tail between his legs having failed to plant himself in a role in Nailsworth. He was believed to have blamed goings on in the background at Cappielow, with then CEO Warren Hawke not receiving complimentary reviews from the bold Raymond, and some club sponsors also being cited as reasons for his departure. But, despite his promises at the time that one day the truth would come out, he’s never publicly spoken about his time in charge of Morton, and I for one doubt he ever will - he was approached by the Morton Forum for a podcast interview when in charge at Queen’s Park, but immediately declined. Whilst that day was one of many catastrophic ones in the last few years of following Morton, it’s fair to say it all worked out well in the end and we dodged the biggest of bullets with Raymond. There was a point in that season that Falkirk’s in house media described him as “honest as the day is long”. I for one, wouldn’t buy a car from him.
    11 points
  30. You really need to dry your eyes on this. Retro shirts are rarely, if ever, exact replicas of the originals. Mine haven’t arrived yet, but having seen Dean’s on Saturday, if you’re going to complain about the poor printed quality, the badge is the same quality as the one I had in the nineties. What do you want? Quality or accuracy? You can’t have both. Maybe you feel you’ve got neither but the quality is definitely consistent with the shirts of the time. Stamping your feet and demanding a refund over tiny little inaccuracies is pathetic.
    11 points
  31. It's still crazy to me that we're a couple of years into fan ownership, the club has proved itself sustainable (via not making an annual loss) for just the second or third time post-Hugh Scott, we had a good run in the league with a small squad, the club owners have got the fans back onside and have secured vital sponsorship at a time when a lot of firms are tightening their belts... and it's once again panic stations in July. edit: and they took a gamble on Imrie, which paid off due to Imrie's hard work and demands for excellence, and each repaid their faith in the other with a contract extension that keeps an excellent young coach with us for the forseeable future! But apparently We Need A Statement because Imrie, well-known for being such a shrinking violet who wouldn't harm a fly to get his point across, is itching to improve the squad.
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  32. They’re fucking insufferable anyway.
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  33. I'd like to petition the moderators to add this as an emoji:
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  34. (Photo-gmfc.net) 1922 And All That- Morton’s Finest Hour And A Half By Russell Gordon One hundred years to the day. A lot has happened since- we’ve had another World War, the creation of the BBC and the NHS, the reconvening of a Scottish Parliament, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the formation of the EU and Britain’s decision to join and its decision to leave, not to mention the death of our opponents from that famous day amongst many other changes. In football, the World Cup was yet to see the light of day, and European competition hadn’t even been thought of. What isn’t terribly well known is that seven years previously in 1915, Morton had in fact won the War Shield- an equivalent knock-out tournament that was arranged as the Scottish Cup went into an abyss throughout the First World War. Stanley Seymour notched the winner against Rangers in a 2-1 victory as Morton took home the Shield. I can’t find any reports from the final itself but assume Rangers’ goal was a penalty. But it wasn’t until the 1919-20 season that the Scottish Cup was again competed for, after being shelved for five years. Successes for Kilmarnock (having trailed Morton 2-0 in the Semi Final and beaten Albion Rovers in the Final) in 1920 and for Partick Thistle in ’21 must’ve drawn envious glances from Greenock, but Morton’s day was to come in 1922. The club was enduring a stop-start season, with their home form in the league greatly contrasting their form on the road. Morton had suffered only two defeats at Cappielow- a 1-2 loss to eventual cup final victims Rangers in November and a 0-3 capitulation to Clyde in January. There were some notable league wins; 2-1 against Aberdeen, and 5-1 and 4-0 pastings of the previous two seasons’ cup winners; Kilmarnock and Partick, respectively. They failed however, to win away from home until defeating Albion Rovers 2-1 at Cliftonhill on the 3rd of January- the day after that 0-3 home defeat by Clyde! Whilst the away form was disappointing, the greatest indicator of this inconsistent form perhaps came a week after Morton’s demolition of Killie in December as, a week later they travelled to Falkirk (remember them?) and were hammered 0-7. Merry Christmas. On a more positive note, Morton got the upper hand across the two Renfrewshire derbies, winning 2-1 at Cappielow and collecting a point from a 1-1 draw at Love Street. They were to end the season 12th in a 22-team league and finished the campaign drawing with Celtic at Cappielow as the Glasgow side took the title on the final day, but their fans were to be attacked with rivets from the shipyards as the infamous Cappielow riot ensued. Morton's hero of the road to Hampden ,George French would tragically miss out on the club's biggest day. But it was on 28th January the cup campaign kicked off, with a routine 4-0 victory over non-league Vale of Leithen. Goals from Bobby McKay and a George French hat-trick saw the ‘Ton ease through against the Innerleithen side. It wasn’t quite so straight forward a fortnight later though, as a Clydebank side who would eventually be relegated from Division One would prove far more stubborn opposition, cancelling out a first half McKay opener to earn a Valentine’s Day replay on their own turf. There was to be no cup romance for the underdogs though, as Morton made no mistake second time around. It was the McKay and French double act again that were to make the difference- this time a first half double from the former, before the latter added a third in the second half. A last minute Bankies consolation took a bit of gloss off a fine result, but Morton had negotiated what could’ve been a very tricky replay with minimum fuss. Next up was the visit of Clyde to Cappielow in Round Three, which saw a resounding victory against the Bully Wee, gaining revenge for that league reverse the previous month. No prizes for guessing where the goals came from- McKay netting the first before French’s double sent Morton in 3-0 up at the break. With the clock running down, Alex McNab added a fourth before Morton keeper Davie Edwards was denied a shut-out by another last-minute consolation. There was to be a major upset on the day though as eventual champions Celtic were knocked out by Hamilton Accies, 3-1 at Douglas Park. A door had been opened for Rangers to end their 19-year hoodoo without collecting the cup. Or so they thought. Trainer William Kennedy and Manager Robert Cochrane plot the downfall of Rangers. Onward it was to Fir Park for a Quarter Final tie that would send a chill down the spines of Morton fans in modern era. Whilst our two cup defeats of the last couple of seasons there have been not only respectable, but very unfortunate, we’ve seen a 0-2 a 0-3, a couple of 0-4s and a 0-6 in both the Scottish and League Cups in my time watching Morton, just off the top of my head. But in 1922, Morton were to come out on top- the only time they have ever won at Fir Park in the Scottish Cup. In a thrilling tie, Alf Brown was to give the visitors a first half lead, and it took until the 75th minute for the Steelmen to restore parity. Any hopes they had of heading to Cappielow for a replay were dashed four minutes from time though as George French was again to prove the hero for Morton, banging home the winner for the good guys. Semi Finals, here we come! The Semi Finals saw champions Rangers play cup holders Partick Thistle and Aberdeen face Morton. With both Hampden and Celtic Park being used for league games on the day of the Rangers v Partick tie, it was agreed that Ibrox would host the tie between the two Glasgow clubs. It’s been suggested that money may have changed hands in order to soften the Jags’ stance on neutrality, but those were never proven, and I can’t imagine that two clubs with such proud moral fibres would ever indulge in the passing of brown envelopes, so we’ll move swiftly on. 58,000 saw the holders fall to the Light Blues; Rangers winning 2-0 thanks to a goal from Geordie Henderson and a Sandy Archibald penalty (of course). George French doubles Morton's lead in the Semi-Final win over Aberdeen at Dens Park. (Photo- The Courier) But it was a trip to Dens Park for Morton to face the Dons in front of 25,000 on the 1st of April. There were to be no April Fools on the Morton side though, as the Greenock’s finest produced a scintillating performance to shock the favourites and proceed to the first Scottish Cup Final in their history. Once again, George French was to prove the hero with a first half double, which was added to by Alex McNab in the 52nd minute. Again, Morton were to concede late on, but the damage was done, and we were in the cup final! There was only the small matter of Rangers in the way of Morton and glory. How Cup Final Day looked a century ago from Mount Florida. So, Hampden it was- in front of 75,000 people one hundred years ago today. Morton were undoubtedly the underdogs, and were dealt a massive blow with the absence of star striker George French on the big day through injury. That the man who had scored nine goals en route to Hampden would miss out on Morton’s big day, and against their toughest opponents of their cup campaign, was a terrible disappointment for both the player and boss Robert Cochrane. The final itself wasn’t a classic, with difficult weather conditions not helping to make a spectacle of a game that was reported to have been littered with fouls, so much so that Rangers were reduced to ten men, with captain Andy Cunningham forced to retire with a broken jaw in those days before substitutions were permitted. Oh well, never mind. Morton's hero on the big day, Jimmy Gourlay was the first player ever to score from a free kick in a Scottish Cup Final. By that point however, Morton were already a goal to the good. Rangers’ keeper Willie Robb had been penalised for overcarrying the ball from his box and Jimmy Gourlay scored from the resultant free kick to give Morton a twelfth minute lead. The ‘Ton were forced to defend for long spells to hold onto their lead as Rangers’ winger Alan Morton tormented the underdogs’ defence all afternoon and a succession of corners came to nothing before the referee’s final whistle signified the single greatest moment not only in Morton’s then 48-year history, but in the history of sport, and possibly in the history of anything, truth be told. It was the job of Provost W.B. McMillan to accept the trophy on Morton’s, and the town’s behalf, his last duty as Provost a month before his death, having acted as Morton’s President for some 27 years. Champagne was borrowed from Queen’s Park as Morton had, perhaps cautiously decided not to pack any for their big day, but the celebrations weren’t quite in full swing as the team caught a train to Hartlepool for a friendly which had been previously arranged for Monday the 17th. On their return to Greenock, 10,000 gathered at Cappielow to toast their heroes and the cup took its rightful place in the Cappielow boardroom (or pavilion, as it probably was at the time). A cartoon depicting Morton's day of glory in the Hampden rain. There were three remaining league fixtures after the final, including of course that draw that saw Celtic take the title on the final day before being sent on their way after a day of violence on East Hamilton Street as Cappielow attracted it’s biggest ever crowd, officially 23,500; but whilst that day belonged to Celtic, nothing was ever going to detract from Morton’s monumental achievement in bringing the cup to Greenock for what to date, was the only time ever. When will we see their like again? Scottish Cup Final, 15th April 1922 Greenock Morton (Gourlay, 12) 1-0 Rangers Morton: Edwards, McIntyre, R Brown, Gourlay, Wright, McGregor, McNab, McKay, Buchanan, A Brown, McMinn. Rangers: Robb, Manderson, McCandless, Meiklejohn, Dixon, Muirhead, Archibald, Cunningham, Henderson, Cairns, Morton. Referee: T Dougray (Bellshill) Attendance: 75,000. Thanks to Leon Mooney for his copies of archive match reports, the images provided and for fact checking the article. Other information taken from The Official History of the Scottish Cup: The Story of Every Season 1873-2016, by David Potter and Phil H Jones. All uncredited images are courtesy of Leon Mooney.
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  35. I know MCT have spoken about their links with other fan organisations before and how the sharing of expertise can be beneficial, FOH being one of them. I don't doubt that building and maintaining relationships like these can be useful, especially so when MCT were first starting out and advice from organisations who'd already successfully handled a fan takeover would have been invaluable, but I hope that generally they're discerning about who they should build links with and remember that ultimately these organisations are also running competitors to the club. I note that Falkirk have also got a fan subscription scheme up and running, Falkirk Supporters' Society, planning to build up to a 26% stake, and have had over 200 fans sign up. I also noted that in an online discussion around increasing membership one of their appointed spokesmen stated that "fucking Morton" have managed to have over 850 members. I'd hope that, even aside from the obvious that it's Falkirk, that kind of condescension would ensure MCT wouldn't give such an organisation the steam off their pish if they were to come looking for a working relationship.
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  36. 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.
    11 points
  37. I don't think this really addresses the problems most people have (which the update seems to partially attempt to do). MCT is the conduit to the club for its members. The people running things at the club need to be visible and accountable to these members as they wouldn't be there without them. It doesn't really matter if they are on both boards or not so I don't think there's any confusion as the update suggests. The fact there is a crossover actually makes it a bit worse for me though. Most members haven't heard a word from the people who've been on both boards (apart from a few snippets from Graham Barr) so there should 100% be more transparency here as there is (or was) a direct link from MCT member to these MCT board members through the MCT channels. The obvious example is that Gordon seems to be the main decision maker and is running things at the club (which is a privilege he only has because of the members) but has been totally anonymous and the impression most have (rightly or wrongly) is he doesn't take on any accountability. This is a direct result of a lack of transparency and might not actually be the case. Like it or not, the main thing for members is how the club is run and not how MCT itself is. The relationship between the two separate bodies and how fans get involved and updated needs to be the focus, not who's on the MCT board doing marketing, etc. Even if over time it is the case that the club is more at arms length from MCT, when the mood amongst the fans isn't good there's no excuse for MCT not being proactive in addressing concerns with the club and relaying these back to fans asap. There's clearly some unrest now with significant concerns being raised over a few months (using here and Twitter as a guage). An SLO led Q&A wouldn't have been needed as much if MCT were proactively updating on what's happening at the club and there was more transparency across the board. As it stands, the impression most people have is that the board members have free reign with no accountability and there's no acknowledgement that they're in that position because of the MCT membership. Edit to add - the updates are appreciated and the last paragraph might be a frustration the MCT board share so are essentially caught in the crossfire and taking the flak (I obviously wouldn't expect an answer on that from an individual!).
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  38. No, not the one where he sworded Celtic in their own midden, the other one where he made his triumphant return to Cappielow to help make Gus McFuckingPherson a distant memory. It's been some 2 years. Wild that he's the 8th longest serving manager in the SPFL at present. No bad for your first gig. Things haven't gone as smoothly this year but we seem to have turned the corner and can hopefully kick on. Here's to the next 2.
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  39. Blues plays whatever position he's asked to the best of his ability and rarely if ever let's the team down. Every squad needs a player like him that the manager knows he can rely on and will follow his tactical instructions. I do think there have been a couple of times over the years when he's been off his form that a week or two out the team would help him but I can always see why Imrie keeps him in the team. I'm a massive fan and become a bigger fan every year he's been at Morton.
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  40. I've tidied this thread up a bit. If you want to continue the erm...riveting...conversation this thread descended into, you can find it in General Nonsense.
    10 points
  41. Imrie can throw his own shite at the fans for all I care as long as we keep winning.
    10 points
  42. (Photo- Scottish Football Hall of Fame) Allan McGraw- An Obituary By Russell Gordon The word “legend” is an often used one in the world of football, and I’ve always felt it was one that has become cheap. In the context of Morton, who are our own legends? For my own generation, there aren’t many. Derek McInnes was a star, the Finns gave us a couple of years of joy, Derek Lilley was a fine goal scorer who netted a club record transfer fee. Younger guys will look towards Chris Millar, Jim McAlister and Peter Weatherson- perhaps even Michael Tidser and Foaud Bachirou. Much as I acknowledge their contributions, “legend” is pushing it in most cases. Those slightly older of course enjoyed the mesmeric skills of Andy Ritchie, ably assisted by such working-class heroes as Davie Hayes, Jim Holmes, Roy Baines and Roddie Hutchison. We all know about the exploits of Jimmy Cowan, Morton’s most capped player, and Jimmy Gourlay, scorer of the winning goal in the 1922 Scottish Cup Final. But if you were to ask most the one man they would associate with our club, the vast majority would name Allan McGraw as that man. It was only just over a fortnight ago that Mr. McGraw was paraded in front of the Cappielow crowd before our victory over Queen’s Park as the Main Stand was named after the great man. Born on the 29th of July 1939 in Govan, he played with Partick Avondale in his youth before graduating to Renfrew Juniors in 1957, whilst doing his National Service. Whilst playing as a centre back for Renfrew, it was in the military that his footballing prowess came to the fore, where he attracted clubs far higher up the footballing food chain than Morton, who had just finished bottom of the old Second Division- dead last. However, after another Morton great- Hal Stewart, had swept into town in 1961, he attracted the young McGraw with the offer of flying him back to Scotland from Germany at weekends, allowing him to see his parents in Govan when returning home. Morton’s fortunes were to improve that season, with McGraw bagging 14 goals in 16 appearances as they finished third in the table, behind champions Clyde and promoted Queen of the South. Given that the club had finished bottom of the pile the previous season, the turnaround in their fortunes in the space of a year was remarkable, although at the season’s end they were to finish a distant 9 points (in those days of 2 points for a win) behind the Doonhamers. The following season was again to see Morton again finish third in the table- but this time around they were to finish a mere point behind second placed East Stirlingshire, and seven behind champions St. Johnstone, with McGraw bagging a remarkable 36 goals in 43 appearances. It was to be third time lucky though for McGraw and Morton in the 1963-64 season- arguably the greatest in the club’s history. An incredible 58 goals in 48 appearances was the personal milestone that he claimed along with his Second Division Champion’s medal as Morton stormed to the title, breaking record after record along the way. Dropping only five points all season, scoring 135, conceding only 37, losing once in the league, winning 23 league games in a row, sealing the title in February and reaching the League Cup Final against Rangers was quite a record for “Hal’s Heroes”. It was in the semi-final of the League Cup that McGraw was the real hero though. After a 1-1 draw with Hibernian, the two went to a replay at Ibrox which was settled by a penalty by none other than Morton’s talisman to send them to their first, and to date only, League Cup Final. The final itself was to prove a bitter disappointment, with Morton falling 0-5 to the Glasgow side, after a goalless first half in front of 105,907 at the national stadium. Always a welcome figure on his visits to Cappielow in later life, it was a fitting tribute to see the Main Stand named after Allan McGraw. (Photo- Gary Bradley) But with promotion sealed with a 6-1 home win over Forfar at Cappielow on 29th February (just over 59 years to the day before his sad passing), McGraw and Morton could look forward to again dining at Scottish football’s top table. It would of course be remiss of me not to acknowledge the contribution of his teammates; with stars such as Morris Stevenson, Jimmy Wilson, and Joe Caven, a familiar face to many of us on our travels to see Morton in the Highlands due to his locality, and a pleasure to meet when we do, doing more than their fair share. On Morton’s return to the First Division, injuries began to plague McGraw, but he still managed to net 21 goals in 33 appearances in that maiden top flight campaign. Sadly though, relegation was to follow the following season, with McGraw only scoring 11 times in 36 appearances before moving on to Hibs in the summer of 1966. Medical science though, was not as advanced in the sixties as it is now, advice for footballers suffering injuries wasn’t what it should have been, and whilst he struggled to train, he relied on cortisone injections to allow him to play. He accepted his own role in not questioning the practice- stating that he never visited the same doctor twice, used the injections to get on the park when the correct advice would’ve been to rest, and whilst the maximum safe number of injections in a year was 3, in one year he took 25! This of course led to his quality of life deteriorating badly, and the image of him on crutches in later life was a common one as he paid the price for his determination to continue playing. With injuries really affecting him, he was to make 60 appearances for Hibs over three years- in fact coming off injured in the 2-1 1968 League Cup semi-final victory over Dundee, before returning to the action in those days before substitutes. Unsurprisingly, he missed the final through injury. There was a short spell as a guest at Toronto City in 1967 before he wrapped up his senior playing career at Linfield in 1969-70. A brief spell at Johnstone Burgh, before taking on a coaching role at Pollok preceded his return to Cappielow as Erik Sorensen, a former teammate from his time at Morton, invited him back to the club as reserve team coach. With another golden era on the horizon, it was McGraw’s reserve side which provided such talent as Joe McLaughlin, John McNeil, Neil Orr and Jim Tolmie to supplement the aforementioned Ritchie, Hayes, Baines and Holmes. However, as Benny Rooney’s fine side of the late seventies and early eighties was broken up, Morton were to fall into the new First Division, briefly returning in 1984 under Tommy McLean, before an immediate relegation the following year under his brother Willie. After Willie McLean’s sacking, McGraw took the reins as Morton’s manager. After a mid-table finish in his first campaign, Morton were to win the title in 1987, and return to the Premier Division, the last time we played in the top flight. Relegation the following season was swift and brutal, conceding 100 goals over a 44 game league campaign, the final one being dispatched by Hibernian goalkeeper Andy Goram with a long clearance from his own box. The title was secured in 1987, resulting in Morton's return to the Premier Division for the last time to date. (Photo- Pinterest) However, there was a shining light in that season of misery, as Graeme Souness’s millionaires were humbled at Cappielow late in the season as Morton recorded a surprise 3-2 victory over Britain’s most expensive side of the time. Morton were to establish themselves in the First Division without seriously threatening promotion or fearing relegation for a number of years before league reconstruction saw five teams relegated in 1994. A horrendous injury list from the start of the season saw Morton relegated with a whimper, although in truth, they didn’t stand a chance. The 1994-95 season saw McGraw add his third title, and his second as manager. Again, Morton struggled early, but with the returning young stars of Alan Mahood and Derek McInnes from injury supplemented by the inspired signings of Finnish internationals Janne Lindberg and Marko Rajamaki, Morton made an immediate, and triumphant return to the First Division. The following season was one of incredible highs, more injury woes, and ultimate heartbreak against Dundee United on the season’s final day. His last season as boss was to prove an anti-climax as Morton failed to live up to expectations after coming so close the previous year. The arrival of the reviled Hugh Scott saw McGraw resign as manager, invited back as Club President before walking in protest as he saw through Scott’s nonsense, and fighting for Morton’s very survival as Scott’s mismanagement saw the club spiral into administration and a focal point was needed to rally the support in order to save the club from the worst possible fate. Commonly labelled as “Mr Morton”, there are few who would argue against the case for him to be considered our greatest ever, and few who would expect to see any greater in our own lifetimes. An overdue induction to Scottish Football's Hall of Fame arrived in 2017, honoured by one of the finest graduates of McGraw's conveyor belt of talent, Derek McInnes. (Photo- Scottish Sun) As well as the recent naming of the Allan McGraw Main Stand at Cappielow, some other fitting accolades he received were his induction to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2017 and an SPFA Special Merit Award in 1998, along with divisional Manager of the Year Awards in his title winning years of 1987 and 1995. Like us all, everyone at The Morton Forum wishes to pass on our condolences to his sons Allan and Mark, and his extended family. We will never see his like again. Bibliography Allan McGraw Testimonial Programme Greenock Morton 1874-1999, Vincent P Gillan Images of Sport- Greenock Morton 1874-1999, compiled by Jim Jeffrey Morton Greats, Graeme Ross.
    10 points
  43. Thankfully, as well as announcing the signing for us, Hamilton have also been getting him up to speed by letting him train there for months and playing him in bounce games, to no reward of their own. The biggest example of a Nigerian taking advantage of Hamilton since the one that phoned them and emptied their bank account.
    10 points
  44. This is the thing though, talking about radical change and reform of MCT is reasonable and arguably an urgent necessity. Someone saying that MCT isn't working in its current form and they need to change is a different thing from saying that the entire concept of fan ownership is doomed to fail no matter what, as if there is absolutely nothing MCT or any organisation could possibly do to make things viable under any circumstances. Which is really the same thing as saying Morton can't be viable under any circumstances, and is nonsense. It is utterly tedious that every single piece of negative news that has come from the club since the takeover has been met immediately with "this is why fan ownership can't possibly work! Sell to the first Angelo Massone figure promising to make us the third force who comes along!" as if private ownership is a magic bullet which will make all our problems vanish and somehow not drive us back into the same debt spiral Golden Casket led us to. That's not what many people are doing on here, you included, but it happens among the wider support. After a statement like that today we absolutely should be having conversations about MCT's model, what can be changed, what the long overdue rewriting of the articles should entail, who within the organisation is doing what, how transparency and accountability of both the GMFC & MCT boards works in practice, and what model we want for the club as well as for MCT as an organisation. Having little or no confidence in MCT in that context is entirely reasonable, and if a serious alternative proposal about future sustainable ownership comes along then look at it, but anyone offering "just sell it as it is literally impossible for a Scottish Championship club to be fan owned and not die" as a contribution to that discussion shouldn't be taken seriously, because they're completely detached from reality.
    10 points
  45. Proof if needed why fan owned isn't fan run. If you want Morton to make money off their facilties then you can't have a caveat that it's only fine as long as it's not people you don't like. The club aren't going to run a survey before every booking. People are actively generating bad publicity for the club to pursue personal agendas.
    10 points
  46. 10th (TENTH) league defeat for the hapless 'Bairns' today - turned over effortlessly by crack outfit 'Montrose'. 22 (TWENTY TWO) points off top spot after the same number of games played. Bottom half of the table beneath 'Clyde', with a negative goal difference. The gift that just keeps on giving.
    10 points
  47. I just want to buy the fucking hat!
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  48. 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?
    10 points
  49. I wouldn't say there haven't been concerns before now over various issues, but that Q&A has certainly left me more worried than I've ever been about the direction the club is going in. Essay incoming. I've said all along since MCT was founded that I don't see fan ownership as necessarily condemning us to becoming Airdrie, Clyde or worse. In fact I see it as the only way we could realistically avoid that fate as circling the drain under the Raes with a giant debt mountain shows that a sugar daddy was going to end that way anyway. However it's absolutely essential that for fan ownership to work, fan owned does not mean fan run. They've been running the club for months and are now officially confirmed as owners, but the whole operation still reeks of well meaning amateurism held up by volunteers rather than any kind of professional competence: pretty much every single answer there made that feeling worse. You have to acknowledge they've inherited a binfire of a football club with a legacy of literal decades of incompetence hanging over it: there's not much that can be fixed overnight and turning us into a slick operation with the professional reputation of a club like Motherwell is something that would take several years. Also, while there have been many issues where I've thought they've done the wrong thing, in most of those cases I could at least see the logic in their thinking. However, none of these caveats justify some of illogical stuff they're coming out with here. So to take one of the issues I disagreed on and was covered in the Q&A, I would never have kept Gus MacPherson on as manager for this season; he failed and failed miserably at the job he was brought in to do last season, which was to keep us out of the bottom two. However you can see the logic of keeping him on; experienced manager at a time of upheaval off the park etc. What there is no logic to justify and sets alarm bells off is trotting out the completely ridiculous justifications for a two year deal given in this video, which suggest that no one on the board has the slightest clue what they're doing. Paraphrasing, but 'we gave him two years because we need stability.' Handing someone a two year deal that (the subtext suggests) you can't afford to end isn't creating stability, it's creating absolutely needless instability. We should aspire to have a managerial team in place for several years whenever we make an appointment and hope the continuity as a result brings success - going through 17 managers in 21 years is clowncar stuff - but the fact is it's very possible that a manager's performance will make it necessary to replace them. You have to consider that possibility and plan for it. You can't just say "we want to keep a manager in place for a while, so we're going to keep this one in place to the end of his contract no matter how he performs in the job and therefore we don't need to consider any contingency for needing to remove him." That's utterly reckless nonsense which creates massive instability, and is especially naive when the manager we're talking about finished bottom of the league in his last job at this level 10 years ago and was factually the worst performer of the three managers we had last season, one of whom was a fitness coach. If you're saddled with a manager who has you hurtling towards relegation and you're powerless to remove him from his job, then you are in a far less stable position than if you have the power to make a change which could avert that relegation. We have much the same problem with the financial answer regarding the two year deal question. Paraphrasing again: 'We have to remember we don't have a big money backer to rely on.' Well yes, not being reliant on the whims of one individual was literally the whole point of the exercise of fan ownership. That's not an excuse for any inaction by the board; if you've failed to take this into account in your financial planning for the season then it can only be described as negligence and you clearly aren't fit to have any role in financial planning at a football club. Sacking a manager is an entirely foreseeable expense for literally every professional football club on the planet. If - and it remains just an if but the tone is hugely concerning - it has somehow become a financial impossibility to do so there are really three scenarios here. 1. It is because of the two year deal and you signed off on a two year deal anyway: your position is untenable and you must resign. 2. The two year deal isn't the deciding factor and it would be the same whatever the contract length, but regardless you have signed off on a budget which leaves absolutely no contingency for this entirely foreseeable expense: your position is untenable and you must resign. 3. The model of ownership which MCT have advocated, talked up to the support and got over 800 fans to sign up to somehow makes this a financial impossibility under any circumstance: then the position of literally everyone who was in a leadership role pre-takeover is untenable and they must resign. There are no reasons for fans to give anyone leeway there, if there's any truth in it is a massive indictment on every single person involved in decision making that leaves each and every one of them with no credibility. I'll go into less detail from here as the post is long enough already, but there are similar concerns with other answers. I felt strongly that they needed someone with football expertise involved from the start - it might have avoided the above clusterfuck they've created over the manager - but you could just about accept the logic of only looking to address this once the takeover was complete. Now, the line is basically, 'Yeah if someone comes up who'd be willing to give us their time for free at any time over the next few years we'll consider it, but it's not a priority.' Sorry, that's simply unacceptable to the point of negligence. The absolute catastrophe of a season we're having is enough evidence of how damaging this oversight is: learn from your mistakes, avoid making them again and make fixing this with a proper football decision making process the top priority. As an aside I do think it's worth pointing out that no one involved here is any less qualified than Douglas or Crawford Rae were to make such decisions, but again, the whole point of this exercise is supposed to be improving things, not continuing to blunder on with the shambolic amateurism of the last 20 years. Same problem again with the commercial answers. There's at least acknowledgement there that they need to do better, but why are we still only at the point of "we're looking at developing a strategy?" We're months past the point where a strategy should have begun to be implemented, they shouldn't just be thinking about what it is. It's also worth saying here that not only has nothing improved yet in this area, it's actually gotten worse. Even look at the website - again you could perhaps see the logic in saying there are better uses of people's time than typing up match previews and reports, but having stopped doing those there is absolutely fuck all on it other than 'please play the lottery and please buy up hospitality places'. How are these entirely worthwhile attempts to generate revenue actually going to be seen by anyone if there is never any football content on the website to get fans looking at it in the first place? It's been taking them weeks to even update the fixtures page with results. That's no reflection on the employees of the club who had no issues doing this in a timely fashion under previous regimes, but it's another thing that's extremely easy to fix and should be immediately.
    10 points
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