Peter Weatherson was brilliant against Gretna on Monday night; scoring two excellent goals to cap off a man of the match performance.However I was extremeley disappointed when he celebrated his first goal with a gesture I believe was aimed at the Morton fans. He cupped his ears as if to say ' what are you lot saying now?'. I have also taken a picture (left) from the Tontastic website in which Peter appears to be craning his neck back to shout in the direction of the Morton support. Then when he was substituted he refused to acknowledge the fans who applauded him off.
The failure to applaud didn't bother me at all but I thought he had a cheek to make any sort of gesture after the performances and effort Peter has put in over the last 2 -3 months. Fair enough if he had started to ram in goals over a succession of games whilst putting in great performances at the same time but he hasn't.
In today's Greenock Telegraph Chris Fitzgerald talks to Weatherson about his, and Morton's, form this season. He says that his poor form was down to his confidence being 'really low' and that that was caused by fans on internet messageboards and on the street saying they wanted him out of the club. He said: "The rumour mill works overtime here. My family is here and they read the websites and hear the talk about town. It’s impossible not to hear what people are saying about you. To hear people want you out of a club you enjoy playing for is hard. That’s why my confidence was so low."
That's all fair enough to an extent but I have a couple of issues with it. The first is that of all the posts on the unofficial messageboard I've read and Morton fans I've talked to about Weatherso only two people have ever said that they want Weatherson out of the club. The rest have been critical (not overly critical) of his effort and fitness - not his performances or form - in the last few months.
Also, I don't think Peter's problem was his form. I just don't believe he is as fit as he could be or that he tries as hard as he could. You only have to look at his exceptional performance against Queen Of The South in November and compare that with almost any performance since then. The difference in effort is night and day. At Palmerston he ran about like a man possessed looking for the ball at every opportunity, in games since then he has wandered about doing nothing much at all. I don't know about anyone else but any criticism I had aimed at him was because of a perceived lack of effort rather than a poor run of form as everyone goes through a bad run at some point.
For me Weatherson is the most talented player at Cappielow. I sincerely hope that he continues to score goals and keep on performing close to the levels he achieved in Dumfries on Monday night. If he does I can guarantee him there wont be much criticism coming his way.
To see a larger picture of the one above click here: http://www.tontastic.com/index.cgi?dir=2008-01-28-ScotCup4-A-Gretna&med=i&pag=11
To read the full Tele' article click here: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=2&id=19196
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