SpoonTon

I'd certainly like to think that this is the case, but managers also know that their stock can rise and fall very quickly in football and opportunities to make a move up can be hard to come by. I'd hope that Dougie would see an opportunity here in the next few months that would outweigh the risk of Ross County in their current state, and I'd also hope that Ross County will sets their sights elsewhere, but I could understand if Dougie was tempted by a move like that.

Ross County are exactly the type of team that I'd be worried about losing Dougie to. Teams like Aberdeen, Hibs, and Hearts don't come looking for managers from clubs like ours. Dougie would need to establish Morton in the Premiership before they'd look at him. Clubs like Ross County would be his most likely option of a step up. There's maybe a chance of League Two in England or something like that, but I'm not sure how realistic that would be either.

We've not actually had a really big game. My, pretty non scientific, calculations are that it could take up to 2 hours to fill the Cowshed/Sinclair Street (based partly on it being about 40 minutes to get it about a third full on Saturday). Efficiency could cut that by a bit, but by this point we should all know that a full house would be a disaster - I mean, they always were a bit awkward (thinking of Dundee utd and Peterhead games) but I'm not sure how it works be manageable at all now.

I think you've misread a few things, to be honest. I wish you'd go back and re-read things without whatever assumptions you seem to have brought to it. On point 3, my repeated point is that people need to be shown those things. So I'm not sure why you're rewording what I already said. But, yes, once you understand how it works it's very easy (and that is precisely about learning how close is too close). Why there isn't more instruction on this, I have no idea. And the main reason for my original post was about the club blaming an issue after the game that they didn't even try to mitigate beforehand. On point 2, btw, I suspect plenty were late to the queue because of the traffic problems around the ground.

They didn't do it in any way I noticed this week. I've already pointed out the fact that many, many fans arrived after I did at 2.54. And at no point did I say that the only problem was the time that fans turned up, or that the solution to the issue of only having 4 turnstiles was to forever saying turn up early. The point I was making, and I'll try to be clear because I really don't want to argue about something I agree with, was that the club can't complain about people showing up late of they didn't make it clear that they wanted them to turn up earlier. The queue lines, or lack of, have been another annoyance of mine for years. It's so badly organised. We're certainly in no way making the best of a bad situation. It's the least we could try to do. But, and I'll say this again, a proper solution is very obviously required.

Well past that point or not, it would have helped. As would helping to ensure more people knew how to scan their ticket. The situation would have been far worse if the online ticketing situation hasn't been sorted in the summer. The club obviously need to continue to move on the right direction and it's fair to ask why progress has been slow, but much of it could have been mitigated by communicating a bit better and asking people to turn up earlier. You might not like where the onus is being placed, but it was the most readily available practical steps that could have been taken this week. It's not an answer to criticisms of the system, or a shield to say that they are right and the fans are wrong, but something pragmatic to help the situation at hand.

I'm not really sure what you're saying here or how it's relevant to what you've quoted.

The thing is, it's not really a daft angle and it's not difficult once you know how. Once you've done it once or twice you should know exactly where to hold it. As long as you don't hold it too close, it's very easy. My issue, and the issue with the last system too, is that it seems very easy to print and laminate a picture of where to hold it and stick it at the entries, and also post short videos of how to do it on social media before games. I have no clue why we don't do that. It's clear that not everyone will know how to do it without being shown, but it should be easy to find ways to show people.

I joined the queue at 2.54 and got in just after 3.10. The fact that the queue was still all the way up to the ticket office and around when I got in shows that there were a lot of people that arrived with no more than 5 minutes to go before kickoff. Even with double the number of turnstiles, we wouldn't have cleared the queue till at least 10 past. I hadn't intended to arrive at the time I did, but I was held up before leaving and didn't expect to get in for kick off. I don't think we should deny that too many people turned up just before kickoff. But the club can't then complain afterwards when they didn't offer any clear and obvious advice on this in the lead up to the match. We all know there aren't enough turnstiles, and I have no idea how we'd handle an actual big crowd, but one thing we definitely can do is advise fans to turn up at an earlier time. We're in a rubbish situation which needs a solution or a contingency sooner rather than later, but right now the club needs to make a better job of planning for the situation we're in. That can start with advising fans to arrive earlier for games like this one.

What type of issue does that suggest with Strapp? Imrie preferred Waters. I don't think there needs to be anything negative towards Strapp in this. And I don't think many expected or wanted McGregor to leave - the majority probably thought he'd go out on loan and we'd see how things stood in the summer. There's no evidence that Imrie has got it in for academy players, but they're not his players and that has always been abundantly clear. There's little or no space for them in his first team approach (which is the task he's been given, to be fair). Managers will always make errors in judgements about players, and there's nothing to suggest anything untoward in Imrie's judgements, but he maybe has got some wrong recently.

I don't think he is fully fit. I also think it's a bit of a strange one. Many fans had Strapp as our best player over the course of the last calendar year, but the longer he hasn't played the worse he seems to get for some. A fully fit Strapp would have no difficultly finding a club at this level, I'm sure. I actually think the issue is that Imrie is pretty ruthless about the way he goes about it. He did it with Jacobs when he first came in, and there was some ill feeling in that one as well. From what I've heard, if Imrie doesn't want you or like the way you go about things then it might not be very pleasant (we can all see the way he is with McGrattan as well). In Imrie's defence, he's working with an incredibly tight budget and his ruthlessness has been part of his success here. It's going to feel unpleasant for some, but that's the job he's been tasked with. It's pretty easy to see it from both sides.

That's kinda what I mean - I've seen nothing at all to suggest bitterness towards the club. He's not joining up supporting his mate (who has been in the same boat with him in regards to not being wanted by Imrie) with liking something supporting Morton losing (he doesn't really need to join those things up). He can support McGregor, dislike Imrie, and still like Morton. Specifically liking something with someone giving the shh sign does suggest he relates to a bit of bitterness there but I suspect that's all towards Imrie. As with all cases, though, my speculation could all be rubbish!

The thinking maybe isn't that joined up, though. Any time I hear whisperings from certain people around the club, it's about how unfairly they think Imrie treats/has treated certain players. So I think there probably is quite a bit of bitterness towards Imrie from a certain group. I think the point is that there are those who think Imrie has been wrong about players like Strapp, McGregor, Lyon, etc and think he's not gone about things in the right way. The enjoyment is probably getting one over Imrie and the rest just kind of rolls into that. A family of a former player who thinks he's not been treated fairly is probably going to be pretty partisan towards their family member. And Strapp is probably just thinking about it through his bitterness towards Imrie.

Yeah, this might be less of an issue if we had a different type of wide player or if we were set up a bit different because Muirhead is scoring goals and has been in positions where he really should have been scoring more, so from that point of view the only issue has been his finishing could be better. But generally he's not the best at bringing others into play and joining things up. He works hard but isn't the quickest at pressing either. With the team we have and the way we're set up, we either need to do more to make up for Muirhead's weaknesses or find a solution at centre forward which helps bring other attacking players into the game more. Hopefully Oakley will be back sooner rather than later.

Another centre half is something that would definitely help right now, but is Broadfoot in defence a bigger problem than Power in midfield right now? I'm still hoping that will change sooner rather than later, but Power is personally costing us goals and isn't helping the performances of those around him either. And would Imrie even drop either of them? I'm hoping for our midfield 3 from last season to be reinstated tomorrow, and I wouldn't want Bearne to have to come in for McGrattan either.

Maybe. I also would've had Lyon as slightly taller than that - so I don't know about the accuracy of either. Strapp didn't look terribly small the times he played LCB (small for a centre back but not ridiculously so for the left side of a back 3), and he looks an average height for a full back. Looking at a few more pictures, maybe 5'9 or 10 might be more accurate for Strapp.

Where does the Lewis Strapp is too short thing come from? At 5ft11", he's as tall or taller than loads of other full backs we've had, and loads of full backs at a higher level. I didn't hear people questioning the height of Jamie Brandon or Liam Grimshaw. He's the same height as the likes of Paul McGinn and Stephen Kingsley and taller than the likes of Greg Taylor. Obviously sometimes managers like a really tall full back, but I can't seeing height as being a particular barrier here.

He scored those two in the final month of last season. Quite a few of his appearances earlier last season were at left back. I'd argue that there's every indication that in the more advanced role he had improved and shown that he can be a goal threat at this level (and useful to have around the squad). It hopefully should be better for us in the long term, but I do think it takes something away in the short term. If the performances of our new signings had been better then it would maybe be something I'd feel better about.

King's the kind of player who could have popped up with 2 or 3 important goals between now and Christmas, so while it should be good for his development in terms of continuing to learn about roles, following instructions, game discipline and so on, it will definitely be a loss for us.

The consensus is probably that the club has our blessing to take the approach of waiting for a September, Liam Grimshaw type signing rather than into rushing into a signing which the management don't believe will really benefit us in the long long. But the consensus will undoubtedly also be that any approach, this one included, is a risk which will be judged as the season progresses. Signing a right back of the equivalent quality of a Ben Sampayo, Jamie McCormack, Kevin McCann, or Grant Evans is probably going to be of little use right now. As would continuing to fail to find any right back, or signing a mediocre one in a few weeks time. The bottom line is that the approach itself is not the thing that will be judged - the outcome will be judged.

It's not an obsession, but it is the most obvious position where we're lacking a clear candidate for the role. While McGrattan did do ok there against Ayr, we did lose a goal from his side when he failed to close down a cross when he really should have (he left it to someone else as if he forgot he was the right back). And I'd rather have McGrattan playing further forward than at right back - and it's that kind of knock-on effect which is a big issue with the right back position. We would be better off with the candidates for that position playing elsewhere (O'Connor at centre back, Blues in midfield, McGrattan either out wide or replacing the injured Crawford). It won't stop our players missing good chances and it won't cause our midfield to defend better, but it is the most obvious weakness in the squad. Out of what we've got, I do think that McGrattan is worth another shot at right back but if Crawford is going to miss games then I'd also want McGrattan in midfield. I don't think it's surprising that there is an appropriate amount of focus on the right back position. Right now we're scoring goals at the same rate as last season, but conceding more than twice as many. There is no single defensive solution to that, but a capable right back would definitely help.

We've ran out of money for new players about 4 times already this summer, so I'm assuming you're right and there will be at least another addition on loan over the next few weeks. We do seem to be in a pretty desperate place in the market, though. We've known about needing a right back for 3 or 4 months with no success yet.

At least Wilson can play in a number of positions.

There are reasons to be concerned. 7 goals against in the first 3 league games isn't good, and is not what we're used to seeing from Imrie's teams. And this does align with the concern that we are light at the back. Broadfoot has conceded 3 penalties in as many matches, and things like losing routine headers at corners and getting turned too easily in the box last week were a concern. We don't really have a solution at right back, neither Blues or O'Connor clicked there last week. Wilson came on and sold two goals, so I'm not sure about how quickly he's going to come up to speed to be a solution anywhere. Bearne looks a way off being ready as well, so we could do with Quitongo staying fit, especially with Oakley out. There's certainly no reason to panic. We have many good players in the squad, plenty of reasons to trust Imrie, and I'm still relatively confident about the season ahead. I can't say I'm without concerns about the defence though.

There haven't been many worse players for us than Dallas. He had absolutely nothing about him. Whether that was about him not being interested, lacking confidence, or whatever else, he was as bad as it gets. He's managed to do alright since then but there's nothing positive you could say about is time at Morton.