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An utterly appalling afternoon in just about every way. I'm sick of being told how great Alan Power is when he's giving away soft goals like that first one and Brian Graham's at Firhill the other week. Same applies to Broadfoot- we've really got to look at lowering the average age of the squad in the summer- relying on guys who simply don't have any pace has been our Achilles heel all season. The downgrade that Waters is on Strapp has also been stark. He's like a 12 year old playing in an under 18's game. Three touches to control the ball and by that point the best pressing team in the division are all over him like a rash. I'll not even start on French on the other side. Ross's post above says more than any diatribe from me could. Quitongo was good- but we're too far down the road now to be giving him a new contract so he can sit on the treatment table all next season, that ship's sailed. Even the shite nature of our goal summed up how crap an afternoon it was. And last, but most certainly not least- absolutely disgusting to hear some racist fuckwit screaming not once, but twice, when Todorov was announced as man of the match over the tannoy that he was a "fucking refugee". I suppose I'm at fault like everyone else for not challenging him at the time, but having done that all the way back in 2006 when some wanker gave Marvin Andrews some of the same and having my ankles clipped walking out of grounds for a year or two afterwards I vowed I never would again, and don't blame anyone else for not wanting the hassle. But it can't go without comment. Hope the insufferable prick is proud of himself- or more to the point, I hope he's absolutely shiting himself if the club take a look at this forum and investigate. Dickhead.

Tedious dirge, but fair play to Dunning for not being bored into submission.

It's the fixed starting point because it's when Muirhead lost form and the whole discussion is about his contribution from the point he lost his form. Including his unquestionable positive contribution before that date would therefore be irrelevant, because no one is questioning that he was very good earlier in the season. Moving the start date forward would make no sense because it is still when his ongoing spell of poor form started. You know this. I would avoid criticising someone for causing a tedious back and forth through a stubborn refusal to admit they're wrong with the incorrect use of statistics if the various claims I'd made in a thread included: 21 year old Michael Garrity is about to turn 24, a fact you didn't address when your error was pointed out Muirhead never plays on the right when he'd played on the right three days prior to you making that claim, a fact you responded to by moving the goalposts to claim Muirhead only starting on the right once all season is irrelvant, an argument you then dropped and failed to address when the fact of his other starts on the right was pointed out at your request None of the fringe players have shown they can make as many contributions to goals as Muirhead, then when it was demonstrated that one of the fringe players competing for a place had in fact been involved in as many goals since Muirhead's form deteriorated despite less time on the park, you pivoted to: Claiming Muirhead's 10 starts in that time period prior to Friday's game was the same thing as Garrity's 3 starts and 7 sub appearances when Muirhead had more than double the amount of time on the park, and finally now with every actual footballing argument expended you're reduced to semantics about what constitutes recent form. People get things wrong all the time, which certainly includes me being too harsh on Muirhead recently enough. You can quietly accept that you were objectively factually incorrect on any or all of these points and stop digging at any time.

I don't think it’s petty at all. Announcing that we’ll be herded into a cramped section of an old stand which for many will have a restricted view of the Railway End is hardly an incentive to sell as many tickets as possible. Why would folk want to do that instead of stand in relative comfort and mingle with their mates behind the goal? That said though, we can hardly ask Morton to stick up for us, here. They do similar to clubs like Ayr more often than not, making Cappielow a pretty miserable away trip. No wonder the club did fuck all over the Arbroath fiasco at Christmas time, they didn’t have a leg to stand on. It’s about time clubs got together and agreed a strategy on how to make away trips as good an experience as possible across the board, but as discussed in the thread I started in December, the clubs don’t care about away fans, and as such, their own fans suffer when travelling away. Rinse and repeat.

Of course Muirhead has weaknesses in his game, that's why he's with Morton. Just like if Jai had a better end product he'd be playing at a higher level, if Robbie was a bit quicker/sharper he'd be playing at a higher level. There's no way Imrie would let Muirhead go without a fight, and rightly so. He's contributed well since Imrie came to the club and is an important player for us. He's not had the best run of form, but the idea that he's not been important overall this season or that he doesn't work hard is just wrong imo. On players being sensitive to fan criticism, there are guys in the Cowshed who seen to shout at the same players every week. I always remember one particular fan who seemed to hate Michael Tidser with such passion that you'd assume it had to be personal. I tend to think it's the better players annoy some fans because they think they're overrated and they can't stand it (I'm not at all suggesting I'm immune to that one). Chris Millar was another one who, bizarrely, was always heavily criticised by a small number of fans. Players like Muirhead should probably understand that they're actually generally well liked by the support, and they're unlikely to please everyone - and probably not to take it too personally when fans don't rate them.

This is how the passage of time works yes, what with February and March being more recent than January.

A 33 year old whose peak of his career has been one stand out season at this level? It's a no thanks from me.

No reason we shouldn't be aiming for 5th in the interim. Difference between 8th and 5th is about fifty grand, give or take.

There’s a lot I agree with regarding ruthlessness in squad building, but binning Garrity at the end of this season would be madness. He’s a young, low earner on a sharp upward trajectory whose strengths are not replicated anywhere in our squad and will be incredibly difficult to find externally, certainly not without significant cost. He’s already contributing goals and assists at championship level and with Mcgrattan presumably moving aside he should be challenged to move up the pecking order, not out the door.

He can’t judge the flight of a ball, shanks crosses out the pitch, gives the ball away when trying to pass it more often than not, and makes a habit of losing his man for crosses (see Airdrie’s 3rd on Saturday). The one thing he is good at is getting back in front of a wide player using his pace if they’re on the counter attack. He’ll pick up a decent wage non-league down in England, but I’d be disappointed if we didn’t look to improve on him for next season. If he was as good as Dundee fans said he was, the injury has clearly done him as a player.

I hope Inverness sink without trace tbh.

I struggle with this argument against Muirhead; it's also the same argument people use to have a pop at Blues. He's scored 16 goals, works hard off the ball and kept us in the hunt when Oakley had his first injury lay off. He's not the quickest in the world and doesn't do the meaningless chasing balls he doesn't need to. And, yet, people want to get rid of him because he had a pop at some bellends who were abusing him from the safety of the cowshed. Where do you think those 16 goals are coming from next season, if we get rid of him?

Good to see Wales getting knocked out. I fucking hate Wales.

Wot?

It's the latter. A more active style of supporter as seen at many clubs. Formed the group themselves, painted etc and their own cost (with club permission) and sell merch to raise funds for displays etc. https://cowshed.bigcartel.com/

There are absolutely no small margins to be discussed here. Dundee Utd were streets ahead in every department last night. On top of not actually being good enough, the majority of our players look heavy legged and extremely low on confidence. If we did get the penalty when we were 3-0 there was still no chance of us getting back into the game, let’s be serious here.

Looking forward to seeing that head steward trying to justify her existence for half an hour before kick off tonight by trying to find a swastika on each of these.

I can't agree with anyone saying Muirhead and Crawford shouldn't be here next season. One is our top goalscorer while the other who hasn't been at his best this season with the ball has worked his arse off in every game he plays and has been unlucky not to chip in with a few goals. We absolutely need to upgrade some positions and improve strength in depth which is a challenge but we shouldn't be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Quitongo would be one of the first out the door if it was up to me. He has attributes very few at this level possess, but even when he is fully fit he's woefully inconsistent. Wilson and Oakley both have bad injury records, but the difference with those guys is if they're playing twenty games in a season rather than forty, they're going to give a solid contribution in 90% of those matches. Quitongo doesn't have that. Add in his technical deficiencies, lack of game intelligence and poor decision making in the final third and it's an easy decision for me. He's simply a luxury we can't afford.

I think it's worth bearing in mind that Blues and Crawford have both played 43 games this season, Muirhead has played 41. And they've played 90 minutes in most of those matches. With key players out injured or not fully fit (especially Oakley, Wilson, and Strapp) it's not surprising that we haven't seen the best of them recently. I think Blues compliments what other players do really well. During our unbeaten run there was so many times he was exactly where we needed him for a block, pass, run, press, etc. He's not so great at stepping into the type of role Wilson or Power (when match fit) perform. He's also not managed any league goals this season, which is disappointing. Crawford hasn't scored for a long time either, we could do with them chipping in more goals from midfield.

To take just one game - the first competitive game of the season - O'Connor got turned by a routine punt up the park by Ross County in the closing stages to give Simon Murray an easy finish. That cost us that game and has been the story of his season. I'm not calling for him to be released but he simply hasn't progressed into a reliable Championship centre back yet. Like many others on the fringes of our first team, they should be looking to themselves for answers about their game time or lack of it. Imrie's not deliberately picking a shite team to lose games.

As soon as the first goal went it we were never getting anything out of that. We are so bad once we go a goal down and can never recover. Fucking appalling from Power and I thought Mullen should have done better. He sort of palmed it into the tip corner. Broadfoot was the worst player on the park though. Closely followed by the rest of the back 4 and Power. He was bullied all game by Todorov, kept going for balls he had no chance of winning, running out of position like a headless chicken. He's done and infuriating that Imrie can't see that. Waters is honking. French's positional sense is so bad. Another ineffectual performance from Crawford. Time for a spot on the bench now. Quitongo and Garrity to start on Tuesday please. The whole afternoon was just fucking woeful. Even our goal was incredibly shit. They are a decent side with a good press but all three of those goals were avoidable. Too many players not good enough and I'd be going for a big clear out in the summer. Likes of Waters, Broadfoot, French, Blues & Power should all be upgraded. Also a note on that racist arsehole too that Toby mentioned above. Utterly appalling and I'm glad that one guy told him where to go. Hopefully he can be identified and banned from future Morton games. Disgusting.

Good luck to him in retirement. A good man who was given quite a baptism of fire in his first job working for that bastard. And thanks for bringing Harry Curran to Morton.

Read through the thread. The basic premise is that he's lazy and had a pop at the support when he scored. He cupped his ears, it's hardly a hanging offence. I don't think he's lazy. He's just slow and slightly cumbersome and doesn't do the fan pleasing unnecessary runs against lost causes. I watched the Motherwell goals again, one for him and the other coming as a result of him closing down McGinn and winning the ball. More to the point, where do you see the 16 goals coming from? He's 5th top league scorer with 11. He's not a natural no. 9 despite the shirt number.

I suspect most people are well aware of the reason Muirhead doesn’t take part in interviews. Hopefully the poster who mentioned this was speaking from ignorance rather than malice, but it’s reflective of the extra mile people go to criticise him. He’s had spells of great form and poor form this season but his return is outstanding. He’s now on 16 goals this season, the majority of which has been played on the wing, and hit double figures last year as well. I remember that Mezut Ozil regularly posted the highest distance covered in matches for Arsenal, but was criticised for laziness due to his slow and languid style. Muirhead is slow but is definitely not lazy and suffers from the same problem of perception. At Firhill for example, the abuse he got was venomous from some, and if Imrie has used this to motivate him I’m all for it. He also scored a great goal that day. He’s been played at centre forward (not his best position) too often this season due to our lack of resources/poor squad building. A consistent set piece threat in such a tight division is a huge factor and the fact Imrie is such a huge fan of his suggests we’ll do what we can to keep him. He can throw his own faeces into the cowshed while singing the sash for all I care, if he’s delivering 15 goals a season. Those numbers are irreplaceable for us and if does go, many of our fans will be facing up to the reality of what they’ve wished for.

What about the five months before that? If Muirhead hadn't carried us through Oakley's first spell of absence then we'd be 9th right now. That some people have either very short or very selective memories is absolutely legitimate to be called out and I'm sure the delicate flowers in the Cowshed every week can put up with it. We can't have it both ways.

When I saw the replay side-on I thought Ferrie got unlucky with a bounce, but no, he's just a fucking oaf who thinks he's playing volleyball. What a fucking breast. Setup: And the punchline:

Jack Bearne today Gave us that wee extra edge at times, hopefully see him kick on and improve with a run in the team.

The worries from the previous two posts here, totally understandable. So glad they’ve aged badly!

Here's the beer selection from my local liquor store, or 'offy' as I still call it https://www.prikentik.be/bier As well as enjoying Belgian beer, I'm also an avid collector of the gasses. Drinking a beer in the wrong glass is a hanging offence here. Edit to add: The Heverlee glass in the centre was actually purloined from Greenock Cricket Club, the beer is only sold in Scotland and Ireland. It used to be brewed here in Leuven, but I believe it's now brewed under license by Tennants.

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.

Strapp and Oakley are the only two players that I'd be willing to offer wage increases to in order to get them signed up for next season.

Yeah, it's easy to get sucked into the 16 game unbeaten run and think we were actually brilliant for half a season, but in reality breaking it down to the league we were brilliant for a third of it and appalling for two thirds. You don't deserve the playoffs if you're that bad for that long, and that we were in title winning form for a third of the season and have still ended up miles off the playoffs shows how dependent we've been on a few individuals to raise the level of the players around them in that run. There are some players who've played less in the two bad runs and were nearly ever present when we were good, along with others whose performances haven't really dipped in the bad runs compared to the great December-February run, but ultimately what having a dreadful two thirds of the season means is that there are several players who've had far more bad games than good ones over the season. Last season we had more than XI players who had far more good games than bad, this time that hasn't been the case for a comfortable majority of the squad and that's why we've regressed overall. The out of contract cohort of that underperforming group should be getting moved on if we want to improve next season.

Wee shame Inverness beat 1-0 Ferguson absolutely seething. Very pleasing. Some wonder saves from Dabrowksi.

Has the makings of them getting beat after apparently downing tools Inverness are a minging club along with Queens Park it's a shame they can't both go down.

The fact that Boyd was handed a 2 year deal so we could have been stuck with him for another year had he not chucked it easily pushes him into the worst spot.

The young lads deserve a lot of praise for their efforts. You just hope they keep it going and become hooked on the club.

Someone is certainly moving goalposts to suit an argument here. Are you genuinely failing to grasp the extremely simple point that looking at the time period in which a player has lost form is the only pertinent sequence of games to look at when discussing a player's contribution while off form, so we're talking about February as the start point because that's when Muirhead lost form? Or are you simply being so obtuse that you're pretending to because you blundered into this by using factually incorrect statements to support your argument and can't admit you were wrong on those points, which is why you've quietly discarded those arguments once the facts have been pointed out and gone down the road of arguing about what time period can be used to judge recent form? Tough call tbh.

Power is a release for me. Obviously a class player, full of vision, can spray a lovely pass, you can see his movement makes a hell of a lot of sense. But we're shipping goals due to his lack of mobility, which is an inevitable aspect of his age. We can't count on a preseason to turn back the clock; it's just too much of a risk. So with all well wishes and admiration, and the hope that he won't be a stranger and that he'll remember his time here fondly, it's time to have an amicable parting of ways.

The main issue with the current squad is as soon as one of the starting XI is out of form/injured our fringe players are not doing enough. Garrity, Bearne and McGrattan are all decent on the ball but apart from that look lost in most games especially against better sides like last night. 3 of them have either made a decent impact off the bench or started a game well then died off, then when given another opportunity the following week have failed to take it. I don't think any of them are up to scratch at this level as of yet, or will ever be. I would look to move on all 3 players, or at least get them out to get more 1st team experience at a league 1 team. Blues and Crawford especially have been well off it for a few months now and contributed absolutely nothing. Power is in the same boat over the last few weeks as has Muirhead. The 4 of them are out of form and really need to be taken out the team for the 3 mentioned above, who haven't taken their chance. Id keep all 4 next year and hopefully they get back into form. I don't think we can question muirheads goal return over the course of the season. Gillespie hasn't impressed much all season wether it be starting or a few calamitous performances off the bench and his time is up at the club. I have just about ran out of patience with Quitongo, but willing to give him another 6m deal to prove his fitness and hopefully get back to his best. When on his game there aren't many better wingers in the championship. O'Connor has been a bit unfairly treated this season taken out of the team for Broadfoot who is finished. Him and Baird are still are best CB pairing and id keep the both of them. Watters isn't good enough at this level and I hope we are doing our best to keep Strapp at the club beyond the summer. Would love to keep Oakley but think there will be a few teams chasing his signature. Keep: Mullen, Baird, O'Connor, Strapp, Wilson, Blues, Power, Crawford, Muirhead, Oakley, Quitongo and incoming Jordan Davies. Get rid: MacDonald, French, Watters, Broadfoot, Gillespie, McGrattan, Bearne, Garrity, King

Muirhead started on the right on Tuesday with Garrity on the left. A player who plays on the right is directly relevant to the conversation about Muirhead's place in the team when Muirhead is starting games on the right. You were the one who claimed Muirhead is undroppable regardless of recent form because fringe players aren't doing enough. He is obviously getting a contract offer for his contribution over the season, but since the start of February he has 2 goals in 10 starts. In the same time period Garrity has 3 in 3 starts and 7 sub appearances. It is an indisputable fact then that in the last two months Garrity has contributed more goals than Muirhead, while on not providing a significant number of assists or set-piece threat, he literally assisted a goal from a set-piece on Tuesday; something Muirhead has not done since the Dunfermline game at the start of February. No one is saying Muirhead hasn't had a better season overall or that his current dip of form is going to last forever, but the idea that we have no one to displace him from the team just now while he's struggling is demonstrable nonsense.

I'd definitely keep Crawford from that list. He's obviously dropped in form but the work rate and pressing her offers is really important to how we play. He does need a bit of support though with other options in the squad to do what he does.. I'm not that surprised he seems to have tapered off towards the end of a long season.

I can't help going back to Imrie's comment after the Queen's Park game that Bearne "only played for 45 minutes." I think that was actually a really harsh criticism and he was still one of our better players in that second half despite not being as good as the first, but take it at face value anyway. I fully appreciate that established first team players have credit in the bank, they've earned leeway for poor form that young players still trying to prove they're good enough for this level haven't, and Imrie setting high standards for those players to keep improving after good performances is a good thing. There comes a point though where those high standards can start looking like a double standard when they just aren't applied to others. So against Queen's Park Bearne is our best player. He follows that up with with the Airdrie game where, like every other attacking player, he does absolutely fuck all. That's him dropped again and he doesn't even get off the bench last night, despite us not using our full complement of subs: one poor performance in a game where literally no Morton player got pass marks and that's him bombed right back to the bottom of the pecking order. Accepting the premise that he was only good for 45 minutes in that Queen's Park game, compare and contrast with established first team regulars. When was the last time Robbie Crawford had a good 45 minutes? Airdrie at home, 24th February? When was the last time Robbie Muirhead had a good 45 minutes? Dunfermline away, 3rd February? Again, those players both have credit in the bank for what they've contributed earlier in the season, and particularly with Muirhead there's the point that even when he's playing badly he can pop up with goals out of nowhere, as he did against Partick and Queen's Park in our last five games. There comes a point though where they just are not delivering, and both keep their places no matter how consistently poor they've been. At least last night Crawford was finally subbed while having another poor game, but Muirhead getting 90 minutes was baffling. Garrity had put in an excellent set-piece delivery for our goal, on a night where the ball was rarely getting into wingers' feet with how poor the distribution from the back four was he was picking it up and driving at their defence at every opportunity, winning more freekicks in dangerous areas and at least earning throw-ins or checking back and retaining possession in situations where he didn't find the space to beat his man. Muirhead on the other hand just wasn't in the game at all. On the one single occasion prior to our first subs being made that he managed to get on the ball in the final third without losing it instantly by dawdling into a tackle, he dribbled to edge of the box and had an opportunity to swing a ball in where we had three runners all looking for it. He decided to hit a shot instead, which he lashed wildly over the bar to the point it was closer to leaving the stadium than hitting the target. That's the sort of abysmal decision making in the final third that Bearne, Garrity and McGrattan have all quite rightly been criticised for, and you generally see them subbed promptly if they do something that selfish when they're in the starting XI. Yet the subs come and Garrity's off while Muirhead keeps his place on the park, and even as Bearne gets splinters in his arse no improvement on Muirhead's performance sees no change. No player should be unsubbable and particularly not one playing that badly. McGrattan got his couple of chances to start in recent weeks against Inverness and Dunfermline and was terrible in both of them so can have no complaints about finding himself back out of the team as a result. Garrity and Bearne however have actually played well more often than not when given starts, but Garrity has had no consecutive starts all season while Queen's Park & Airdrie was the first time Bearne has. Crawford and Muirhead however can turn in McGrattan v Dunfermline level performances every week - Muirhead was even worse than him in that game - and their places are never under threat. Garrity and Bearne have been our best attacking players since the start of March, pick them.

I wasn’t too pleased to hear about his response to one fan’s grumbles about Arbroath away in December, but that’s his battle to fight. Doesn’t leave a good impression in my eye though. And after I emailed the club over my mate that supports Dundee United being denied entry a month ago, addressing the mail to him, my pal received a refund, but no explanation or apology for what happened. I’d also have expected some sort of reaction to the “alleged” racism incident at the weekend, which I don’t accept they’re unaware of. He seems big on communication when the positives can be played upon, but I’m not seeing much evidence of solving real concerns. I don’t really care how many e-learning modules office staff are completing when the General Manager doesn’t have the courtesy to reply to a relevant complaint.

Power has been good for us this season when he has been fit and has had his game time carefully managed. You can see the class he's had as a player over the years. He's outstanding when he's really on it. But what on earth was he doing on the pitch on Saturday when it's quite clear he couldn't even run properly. Giving the ball away for the first goal is poor and watching him try to run back after losing the challenge in the build up for the second goal is a painful watch. It was the same at the beginning of the season. Obviously it's an issue with such a small squad that sometimes you're going to be tempted to, or have to, play players who aren't at their fittest but surely Power wasn't at match fitness for Saturday. Maybe that's just the reality of the squad we have, but you'd have to assume that Gillespie can't be very fit either given he wasn't selected to start.

I fully intend to go on Tuesday night, but I had no intention of buying the ticket before Tuesday. I can understand the decision, but I do feel like it leaves me in a strange predicament of not wanting to buy a ticket for the stand but needing other people to do just that so that we sell enough to justify opening behind the goals.

What are you basing this on? Muirhead works incredibly hard off the ball. He was hitting both bylines on Saturday and executed a great saving slide tackle in his own box to cover Waters. In our system those three players between midfield and attack have to cover more ground than anybody else. There’s a reason Imrie trusts him in that role, a manager who has publicly criticised and dropped players from that position for not running, pressing and/or tracking. He even cited it as a reason for Lyon’s failure to succeed at the club. Muirhead also tends to play 90 minutes despite his opposite winger being substituted and with other wide options on the bench. This just wouldn’t be the case if what you’re saying was true.

Muirhead has scored 16 goals this season and will have a few assists as well. He has a right to be pissed off with some of the fans given the ridiculous comments on this forum and at games. He seems to be an easy target when things aren't going well but for me he's got enough credit in the bank from this season and last. How he carries himself, his body language and running style can look very relaxed at times but let's not forget the games he's worked his arse off as well. No player can do that for 90 minutes.

A defeat puts us 8th though. We have to stop the rot today.

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.