dunning1874

They've definitely improved the social media over the last few weeks and this is hopefully a sign the commercial side of things is moving in the right direction as well. it shouldn't have taken the fan survey and the whole twitter stooshie before Christmas to get to this place, but hopefully this is them turning the corner now and in the long term the shite first few months can become an afterthought. As said by others, the Scottish Cup centenary will be a good test of that.

Whether in the Cowshed or in the pub with a pint in hand, Tiger in full rant mode was a sight to behold. He was on his usual good form in the Norseman the day of the Dunfermline game. RIP.

No replays from the fourth round onwards this season, it'll be straight to extra time.

If this stays the same for the remaining five minutes, Imrie will have delivered 7 points and 8 goals in his first three games. It took MacPherson 10 games this season to reach 7 points, and 12 to reach 8 goals.

None of the charges are for betting on matches he was involved in, so no.

Aye, all the charges are for betting on football and not the more specific charge of betting on a game you had influence over, meaning this can't be related to those allegations about being booked deliberately.

Having been an unused sub there, he's now starting against Morocco.

Pretty rotten luck for the club that the most recent of these offences is in 2019 but it comes up within a month of him being appointed here and he's probably going to get a hefty touchline ban as a result. All the charges relate to betting on football in general as opposed to the much more serious charge of betting on games he had any influence over so wouldn't expect anything more severe than a fine and suspension.

Really surprised that nothing has officially come from any clubs yet about games being moved to Monday or Tuesday. Partick asked if the restrictions could be lifted from Friday instead as they can't move their game to Monday or Tuesday because the BBC won't let them, but thats obviously not happening. Maybe some clubs have reasons to not want to move it, eg Queen of the South apparently have a hotel booked in Inverness already, but I don't see any reason for Morton and Ayr not to get this moved.

Bachirou on the bench for Comoros for their first ever AFCON game v Gabon.

Happy with that. There are going to be question marks about his fitness with how long it's been since he had a regular uninterrupted run of first team football, but before his injury problems he was trusted to play in the top flight. Hopefully playing every week is the platform to show he's still capable of being the same player and if that's the case we've got a solid upgrade on what we had.

For about 30 minutes of that I was a bit worried about the amount of space we were giving up in midfield. That concern came from me failing to appreciate how utterly toothless Dunfermline are; Imrie clearly did and knew that we could deal with them. As soon as we got the second it was a question of how many. No poor performances in that Morton team. You can play it down by acknowledging that Dunfermline are a ridiculous shambles, but that's two very impressive results in two games from Imrie. A few of them are already looking like different players under his management, most obviously Reilly who was tremendous.

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.

Right then. Oksanen will be away and Knowles is already gone. I'd be happy to see Allan and Reilly's loans terminated as well but as it stands that leaves us with: Hamilton Ledger, McEntee, Lithgow, McLean, Strapp, Russell, Hynes Jacobs, Lyon, Blues, McGrattan, King, Allan, McGregor (and Garrity out on loan at Annan) Ugwu, Oliver, Reilly, Muirhead, Easdale I think the best XIs we can get out of that as it stands are either in a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3/4-5-1 as follows: Hamilton Ledger - McEntee - McLean - Strapp Then either: McGrattan/Blues - Jacobs - Lyon - Russell Ugwu - Reilly/Oliver Or: Blues - Jacobs - Lyon McGrattan - Ugwu - Russell Depending on the specifics of the shape and how much defensive work you're looking for you could justify one of Reilly or Oliver coming in for McGrattan or Russell in the latter option, but I generally don't think either can be trusted defensively. In an ideal world you'd want to add: A sub goalkeeper A right back or centre back to take McLean out of the defence, either in a straight swap or moving Ledger inside Another central midfield option to take the place of Blues if it's a midfield three A couple of credible wide options whichever system is preferred Another centre forward so we have either a competent partner or alternative to Ugwu. In reality there is absolutely no chance we're getting six players - three would be a push - so there has to be some prioritisation there. Imrie is clearly adamant that a sub goalkeeper has to happen. Good. I think the centre forward has to be essential as without Ugwu we have nothing there at all. While one defender could improve the defence considerably by ensuring Lithgow and Hynes will be nowhere near it barring an injury crisis, our main problem is scoring goals. Is the marginal gain of shoring up the defence worth it if it means having to do without adding some attacking width or presence in midfield? There's an inescapable conclusion here that Imrie is going to be stuck with what he has in more than one position and has to do a massive job in turning players who've never looked good enough for this level or inexperienced teenagers into competent Championship performers, or failing that getting results out of the minority of the squad who are good enough despite having to pick some guff around them.

65 minutes of insipid shite with a back three, 1-0 down with Hamilton the only reason it wasn't 4 or 5. Switched to a back four, immediately came into the game, equalised within 5 minutes and were comfortably the better team from then on. Apoplectic at whatever the fuck we were playing at not trying to win the game v 10 men (no idea why that was a red card incidentally) in stoppage time but it's a good point, especially after how bad we were for an hour.

That's an incredible ball in from Strapp.

This is it, Russell was murder and Strapp going on the park was the right call, but he should have been on for a centre back (or Hynes with Ledger going to right back) with Oksanen replacing Oliver at the same time. The only change from Arbroath being an enforced one with McLean replacing McEntee is unexpected and I hope the continuity of Millen still stinking the place out isn't going to hold Imrie back.

I think blaming Hamilton for the goal is harsh, or at least missing the point. I'm not going to blame a manager 40 minutes into the job, but the main cause of that goal is the systemic issue we've had all season: regardless of whether it's in front of a back three or back four, a midfield three cannot have Gary Oliver in it, or be a two with him on front of it. If Oksanen or dare I say it Blues are in that midfield instead of Oliver, no one is getting that amount of space on the edge of our box. Which isn't to say it's Oliver's fault either, but we should only have one of Oliver and Reilly on the park with an actual midfielder in their place.

He's also had another interview today where he was reaffirming the points about needing to see effort from the players as the minimum acceptable and wanting to get the fans onside. It also had the quote "Draws are of no use to us at this point of the season, we need to be getting ourselves consecutive three points as quickly as possible and propelling ourselves as far up the table as we can." What a refreshing thing to hear after Gus 'we've only lost one of the last six' (said when we were 10 games without a win) MacPherson. It might only be talk, but it's such a huge attitude shift after hearing years of talking Morton down from the likes of Hopkin and Johansson.

Being reported that Championship clubs have voted not to postpone games while the restrictions are in place. Disappointed by that, but I can also understand clubs being wary that restrictions will be extended, which would then leave them with no choice but to play in front of reduced crowds meaning they've given themselves a fixture backlog for no reason.

Whoever has been on that twitter account today needs to have their access removed forever, and frankly if it's a director we should be told who it is in the name of transparency so we can vote them out (if they ever want to tell us how that's possible, what with this being a transparent organisation accountable to their members) because it betrays an amateurish mindset that will cause far bigger problems than just looking daft on twitter. This would be an absolutely ridiculous performance at any time, but to keep digging and digging to this extent the day after announcing a new manager when we should have a tone of relentless optimism and positivity coming from the club and their owners really is unbelievable.

In the Tele today that it's an 18 month contract.

While you can read too much into interviews, that's really encouraging and he's saying all the right things. He's talking up the potential of the club both in the short and long term rather than indulging in 'plucky little Morton' stuff, and talking about the minimum standards he expects. While a manager talking about desire, commitment and getting fans onside can sometimes come over a bit John Hughes, in the context of what's going on with this squad that's exactly what we needed to hear from the manager. It'll all be irrelevant if things don't change on the park, but it sounds like he's going to bring a real professionalism off the park.

An absolutely hysterical and baseless government decision, but over to the SPFL to get the games postponed. Playing for several midweeks to make the games up won't be great, but the big issue would be the Premiership and they have the sensible option of shifting the winter break - it would be workable for every other division.

It's official: https://www.gmfc.net/dougie-imrie-appointed-first-team-manager/