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  1. 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
  2. Why would there be a cutoff though? If someone wants to pay full price for a ticket and rock up late - even just for the 2nd half for example, why shouldn't they be able to?
    9 points
  3. There was more of this yesterday, and hardly a coincidence that it comes a couple of days after the General Manager admits to having a tense discussion with the security company. No point in smiling, waving folk off and wishing them a happy weekend when she’ll be behaving like a little Hitler next week because it’s ingrained in her and she can’t help herself. Just own your behaviour and get a job that you’re more suited to- i.e. one that doesn’t involve working with the general public. That’s the positives though. The negative was their stupid insistence on giving the visiting Reggiana fans who turned up for the first time in a good while a hard time for putting up a flag that was no more than 2x3ft in size up. Bureaucracy over common sense as usual. You’d think most football clubs would welcome visitors like them with open arms, yet at Cappielow you’ve got guys on radios making a fuss about the most trivial issues when they should in fact be there to make the experience of going to a football match as pleasant as they can for paying customers.
    7 points
  4. He was a wee cunt with a stinking attitude and still is. Fuck him.
    7 points
  5. Haha. Aye, I was quite please with that. The boy calling me bitter and unprofessional was a belter- I write for a fans’ website because my pal runs it, not for FourFourTwo. Perhaps the Raith fans could look a bit closer to home when seeking examples of unprofessional content being published online.
    7 points
  6. I understand people's frustration with Muirhead but this statement is utter bollocks. This season (so far) Robbie is our top scorer and he also has provided the most assists, without him we'd already be relegated.
    5 points
  7. It’s a bit of a nuisance to quote and reply to everyone on this, but I just can’t accept the point about reporting the ground at a certain percentage of capacity at a certain point after kick off. We’re well past the stage of folk turning up on the day and handing over £20 and walking through now. Every purchased ticket is recorded and the club know how many people at a maximum will be in the ground at kick off time going by those sales, with stewarding numbers arranged in advance. I remember Dave MacKinnon telling me of similar instances of people who were knocked back, if turning up late from work, when he made his grovelling apology over his (alleged) drunken blocking me from the club’s Twitter, and telling me they were working on fixing it, yet four years down the line, and under a more efficient management structure, we’re at the same place with the same security firm. Ronnie’s point about picking on easy targets strikes a chord here, for me. Like they’re happy to pick on a grandfather and his grandson instead of getting right in the middle of the shed at its most wild, they’ve found an away fan that they think will eventually forget about the issue and move on, not knowing that his mate is in fact a Morton fan who will cling onto this like a dug with a bone. I’d expect if questioned, the first defence to be that he was drunk. He wasn’t, I met him outside the Norseman at full time, by which point he’d had plenty of unexpected time in the boozer and was completely sober. Ironically, reading Paul’s post- the guy is a medical professional, who has before found himself in situations similar to what Paul’s painted at games elsewhere, forcing him to turn up later, and been admitted. You wouldn’t know to look at him, though. Not that the head steward did, of course. She denied him admission from the other end of a walkie-talkie, leaving her subordinate to confront him, like the coward she is. With my pal included in my email trail, we received a reply from Alistair, who asked for his details to process the refund and advising that it had been forwarded to Dale. Given that I addressed the original mail to Dale and asked for his thoughts on the matter, I’m a bit disappointed that having sent it on Wednesday night, I’ve not heard a thing from him. While I feel that addressing the treatment of wronged customers should be a matter that’s treated with the utmost priority, I’m prepared to give the benefit of the doubt for now, given how busy a week this is with the Hearts game coming up, but Morton have got two extremely unhappy paying customers, here. And one of them is a very regular one. The tail is wagging the dog with this security firm, and Morton really have to be letting them know that their behaviour, and that of certain individual employees, can’t go on as it is.
    5 points
  8. Although we definitely did not deserve to win the game I certainly don’t think we deserved to lose it. They had one clear chance and a quality striker has taken it. What is extremely concerning is how much we are reliant on Oakley. Completely incapable of creating any threat in the final third without him. Record Without Oakley in the league this season: P10 W0 D4 L6 Goals scored 5. (0 in the last 5 without him 0-0 ICT (a), 0-0 airdrie (a), 0-0 Raith (a), 0-2 ICT (h), 0-1 Dundee Utd (h). Monday night could be an interesting one…
    5 points
  9. I hope if today is the day the run goes the fans don't turn on the team. If anything they deserve acknowledgement for a tremendous effort. This wasn't going to last forever. Fingers crossed we can turn it around though.
    5 points
  10. Can’t say I’m not disappointed with the club’s lack of a response to my complaint about this. I’ve not spoken to my mate since the weekend, but to my knowledge he’s not heard anything from the club beyond his refund, which I assume he received. And given that the complaint came from myself, neither have I since the admin boy, Alistair told me he had passed on my complaint to the General Manager. I don’t think that just giving a refund with no explanation or apology to my pal, or reassurance to me that an investigation is taking place is enough, to be honest. I was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt for not replying immediately because everyone inside the club would have been busy in the lead up to the Hearts game, but hearing nothing two weeks after making a valid complaint, and a week and a half after the big event that consumed their focus is poor.
    4 points
  11. This pic just turned up on my Facebook page. Not only was Rob Rensenbrink (second from left) a great player for both Anderlecht and the Netherlands, he also had a keen eye for spotting and coaching 37 year old talent from works leagues. What a guy!
    4 points
  12. He's an attention seeking fanny.
    4 points
  13. That pre-Oakley unbeaten run last season we were very reliant on natural width with Quitongo on the right and McGrattan or Kabia on the left, with the long balls primarily aimed at finding the feet of wingers rather than going for Muirhead's head and trying to play off flick ons. I can understand why Imrie has stuck with things like Blues on the right when he was in fantastic form there until a few games ago, but in Oakley's absence we need that natural width back to give us an outball. Having naturally central players there is fine when we're scrapping for second balls in a congested middle of the park and you want whoever's playing out wide to be comfortable stepping inside, but with no target man to aim at we need players who are comfortable opening up space by hugging the touchline, linking up with Strapp and French and carrying us up the park by running at full backs. Garrity has to start next week.
    4 points
  14. Those doing the chant about "Hope you die in your sleep" can GTF too. We are not the Glasgow cheeks.
    4 points
  15. I don’t doubt what you’ve said is true, and fair enough if that’s how the contract with the security company works. But that doesn’t justify their staff being rude and obstructive to paying customers, and their performance as a subcontractor, and the performance of their staff has to come under some form of regular review, even if things are going well. And given the amount of complaints from various different people, the performance of their staff simply isn’t up to scratch. My mate had bought ten tickets for him and all his pals, so couldn’t be refunded for his individual ticket immediately, but after I emailed the club and included him in the email, they’ve taken his details and will process his refund this week, although he and I are still waiting to hear the thoughts of the General Manager about the issues I raised. Good enough of the club to refund him for his ticket, but we now have this woman costing the club his £22 because of her attitude. How often do things like this happen? Can Morton afford to just throw money away because someone who is working on the club’s behalf has an attitude problem? As a club for whom it’s common knowledge that every penny is prisoner, it is negligent in the extreme not to thoroughly investigate the behaviour of someone who is working on their behalf actively driving paying customers away.
    4 points
  16. A pal of mine who supports Dundee United was denied entry last night because he was late in turning up at the ground. Not that it should need explaining, but when in the Norseman he had to deal with a phone call that was a bit of a family emergency, and by the time he got round to leaving to go to the ground, the gates were all locked. He approached a steward to see if he could gain entry to the ground and the steward radioed his supervisor, who said under no circumstances would he be allowed in, despite having no idea of the circumstances surrounding his late arrival, and the fact that he had bought a valid match ticket. It will come as no surprise that he described the supervisor on the other end of the radio as female and “very aggressive” in her tone. Said supervisor did not, of course, attend the scene in person to explain why my pal wouldn’t be getting in. I understand there may be a cut off point to get entry to a game, but to be told that “under no circumstances” will he be permitted entry, is completely unacceptable imho. People encounter issues in their day-to-day lives, being treated like that be someone whose job role is customer service shouldn't happen, and was an embarrassment to me when he told me how my club were treating him. I doubt it’ll take much joining up of dots to establish who the female supervisor is, and I’m 99.99% sure that it was the same woman who we constantly complain about on here. It’s about time she lost her job.
    4 points
  17. Hopefully it’s the SPFL clamping down on tadgers like that Blair McNally cashing in on their product without permission.
    4 points
  18. Throw in a potential, but unlikely play-off campaign which in the best case scenario could stretch to six games that aren’t on the season ticket and then take into consideration that this is the first summer in a generation that a lot of the support are keeping every penny for a trip to a major tournament and I can see the club forced into a bit of an embarrassing climb-down on this. These things aren’t really my scene now I’m a bit older, and I didn’t attend last year but that event seemed quite popular with a lot of the support- although I seem to recall criticising the price at the time. I saw someone saying the price has doubled this year! If it was a free bar you could maybe understand, but it doesn’t sit easy that a fan-owned club is pricing out the rank-and-file for what should night of mutual appreciation for everyone’s efforts.
    3 points
  19. I don't have an issue with Imrie calling out McGrattan, because hamstrung as he might be by having the wretched excuse for a footballer that is Tyler French behind him, McGrattan has had chances to step into the starting XI and has played very, very badly. That was probably his last start in a Morton shirt today and if he doesn't get another chance before being released in the summer then tough shit, you had your chance to step up and didn't take it. What I do have an issue with is throwing barely concealed digs at someone like McGrattan when a player who casts himself as a linchpin of the team escapes criticism from Imrie entirely. I'm absolutely not saying it would be appropriate for a manager to start bodying players in public, but he's obviously doing it of his own accord already. If you're going to have a dig at anyone, call out the player who has spent the last two months delivering performances Adam Coakley would have been embarrassed with. Today is genuinely the angriest I've been at a Morton performance in Imrie’s time in charge, and Robbie Muirhead is the reason. Footballers miss penalties, that is entirely reasonable and forgivable, but what's not forgivable was seeing him only then start to try for the first time in 2024. In that 10 minutes after taking the most telegraphed penalty of all time he was absolutely bursting his arse: showing for passes, pressing centre backs, competing for every high ball. Things he has steadfastly refused to lower himself to for the last six weeks, because he thinks he's above it, and it was only today when the dropped points were undeniably his fault that he finally decided it was worth his while to leave first gear and try to make a difference, but it was too little, too late. I'm genuinely fucking aghast at how brazen he's been about it and I can't see how anyone could justify offering him a contract at this point: if this is your approach to Championship football then enjoy your mid-table League Two finish with East Kilbride next season.
    3 points
  20. A lot of boys probably still over in Amsterdam for the Scotland game, in fairness.
    3 points
  21. Imrie basically calling out McGrattan in his post match interview, which is poor when Broadfoot, Crawford, French, golden boy Blues and Muirhead were all miles off it.
    3 points
  22. First team players are regularly involved in those engagement activities though, as a browse through MITC content would demonstrate. Leaving aside the fact that it's not actually a footballer's contractual obligation to grow the fanbase - that's commercial/marketing behind the scenes - the idea that they're not doing their bit is nonsense.
    3 points
  23. It could be. Might be. Might also be a way to: - answer common themes of questions - keep a nice running order of those themes (rather than bouncing around subjects) - keep the session timely while getting through all the questions - allow the panel to construct their answers properly (hopefully not in a politician-type way, but answering questions properly without the pressure of thinking off the top of their head in front of a live crowd) - avoid the inevitable, awkward scenario of people not being particularly articulate with their questions There’s pros to opening it up for questions on the night as well but given the above I’m not being totally cynical about their decision.
    3 points
  24. The fat coonilor is a complete irrelevance anyway.
    3 points
  25. At least the news has made someone happy. Cretin that he is - Gordon must have taken away his and daddy’s privileges. For what it’s worth I think he’ll be a loss to the club.
    3 points
  26. Hardly surprising given that Oakley was born in 1995, while Tam Cowan lives permanently trapped in 1974.
    3 points
  27. Aside from the goal, we were superb everywhere. Held the formation well and tried to create chances when we could. Power, Mullen and Strapp were awesome but everyone was exceptional tonight. Gave a good account for being the only Championship team in the Cup and we made a couple of bob out of it at the same time. All winners tonight. Well done Morton.
    3 points
  28. If someone has a ticket, there is no reason not to admit them. To suggest that letting someone in after kick off might overcrowd the ground is daft as they could have turned up before kick off and got in without question. It's a daft rule and probably they're doing it to avoid having someone on the turnstile for any longer than needed. Every game I'm at, one of my friends invariably arrives about 5 minutes or more into the game - never been a problem at the Sinclair St turnstiles in as long as I can remember. This sounds like a situation where the general manager should just tell the stewarding company to facilitate late entry, even if it means letting someone in via the main stand entrance and telling them to walk through to the away section. The stewarding company are employed by the club, not the other way round.
    3 points
  29. When I complained about said female steward telling me to take my grandson off the barrier with 89 and a half minutes gone, a club employee told me that the ground was "signed over" to the stewarding company until approximately an hour after the game was completed, and that therefore the stewarding were responsible for the stadium and that GMFC were not. He further stated that this was one of the most frequent scenarios he encountered, people (including ST holders) turning up late, for whatever reason, and being refused entry by stewards. He said he often got phone calls from folk in this situation asking to get in, but given that the stewards were "in charge of the stadium" there was nothing he could do. TBH I didn't believe him at the time, but this adds a bit of truth to that now. It's something that I'll be raising at the QandA session with the board later in the month.
    3 points
  30. That's pish poor. There can be a multitude of perfectly valid reasons for arriving late, especially if travelling a distance, so to have a blanket rule like that with no exceptions irrespective of the circumstances, is shite in the extreme.
    3 points
  31. Completely agree. I know Alex Samuel is a religious boy, but he took the Lazarus act too far today.
    3 points
  32. Some laugh going back to July and seeing the usual suspects absolutely ending themselves over our failure to sign "Frankie Deane."
    3 points
  33. Don't make adult tickets cheap - just hand out free child ticket vouchers like sweeties at every school in the area and get them to guilt-trip their guardians to take them along at full price. We should be making greater allowances for low income/unemployed/concessions given both economic reality and the community ownership aspect. We could also make a pitch to 'new Scots' being settled in the area in droves, instead of having them latch on to that piggery in the East end of Glasgow which seems to be the default option. That should be reflected in season ticket options though (discount and installment packages) rather than a walk-up price IMO. That won't suit every person's situation of course, but we're still running a business here and not a charity. The best way to secure a growing and sustainable fanbase is to incentivise the habit of getting a season ticket. We've made good progress on that since the takeover but are still years behind most other clubs at this level.
    3 points
  34. Still pretty frustrating at this stage though. We banked significant extra coin from the cup, had Boyd take himself off the wage bill and yet we were the only club in the entire division not to do any new business in the winter window.
    2 points
  35. Wouldn't criticise individual stewards for this, but it's notable that when there was some Celtic supporting jakey openly smoking a joint and giving out continuous, dreadful patter* about wearing a hair band to some Dundee United player a few weeks ago, eagle-eyed enforcement of The Rules was nowhere to be seen. Given the regular reports of spitting from the other side of the Shed too, company policy seems to be that they will pick and choose their battles - i.e. against those not likely to cause them trouble. *Probably the worst offence of the lot
    2 points
  36. What I'd further add, regarding the SNP's corrupt implosion, is that this seems to be a well-trodden path for small, homogenous countries with a dominant party. Machiavelli wasn't wrong; corruption is a property of an embedded oligarchy, and to excise it requires a return to first principles. This played out in Ireland, Mexico, all kinds of third world countries like that, and Scotland is no exception to the pattern. But I don't regret my SNP support. It was a necessary condition of ending Labour's own corrupt one-party state regime - and the SNP managed it with an overwhelming mandate, one that defied the proportional representation deliberately put in place to stop it from governing. I'm glad the SNP had its time in the sun and despite this ignominious ending I think they did far more good than harm. What happens next is the greater question and it's one that I won't be paying much attention to answering.
    2 points
  37. All very fair points, and I do agree with you. I think asking for questions in advance, and leaving a little time for Q&A at the end, is probably the happy medium for events like this.
    2 points
  38. I think that's the reason he is in the Alba party.
    2 points
  39. MODS! Wrong. They're called Partick. Always have been, always will be.
    2 points
  40. an outstanding effort from every single player tonight. It’s the hope that bloody kills you. Thought Mullen, Broadfoot and Power were phenomenal, although I can’t help but feel Power should take one for the team and half the hearts player to stop their attack for the goal? Perhaps being harsh. Had our chances and gave it our all, that’s all you can ask for. Hopefully fans have watched that and will come back the team to push for play offs now. We more than deserve it. Overall emotions are absolutely gutted but extremely proud of this club and group of players. Closest I have seen us come to a Scottish cup semi final in my lifetime. Btw I would not have it any other way.
    2 points
  41. If a player's not performing well enough in training and/or game time then he shouldn't be playing, whether we gave him a two year deal in the summer or not.
    2 points
  42. 2 points
  43. Just give him his red dot and move on. There’s little point engaging with him. With any luck he’ll get bored with the attention seeking and either try to contribute something worthwhile, or better still, chuck it completely.
    2 points
  44. Dougie was on A View from the Terrace there on BBC Scotland. Came across very well, as ever.
    2 points
  45. So is Kirkcaldy though, and it's obviously not having a huge impact on Raith. Inverclyde has been relatively deprived as long as I can remember, even when we were pulling in decent crowds in the late 70s/early80s and early 2000s. I think a bigger factor is depopulation. The current population of Inverclyde is around 75000, whereas 30 years ago it was over 100000. That's a huge reduction in the potential fanbase..
    2 points
  46. I've only been to two games this season due to being overseas, but one of them was at Ibrox and I thought Power showed great positioning there. He clearly couldn't be everywhere he wanted to be but mentally he's invaluable. When you look at Dougie's signings he's got an amazing hit rate. Not all of them work out but by the percentages he clearly can spot what he's looking for.
    2 points
  47. Decent point and performance. Is that five 0-0s away from home now? Power was the best player on the park. Immense.
    2 points
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