25/04/2008

Limited Changes On Saturday, If Any

Morton boss Davie Irons has told the Greenock Telegraph's Roger Graham that there might not be any changes from the team that beat Dunfermline so convincingly last week. Irons said: “I don’t think anyone would expect changes after last week; there certainly won’t be many, if any."

The only change I can think of would be to put Allan Jenkins in for Chris Millar - who hasn't been on form the last few weeks. I know this is potentially Millar's last game but as someone said on the Morton messageboard there's no room for sentiment in a game of this importance.

The former Gretna manager also talks about the importance the fans can play on Saturday: “The fans’ backing is hugely important. I have said to the players ‘just think what a lift you’ll get when you see one end of the ground all blue and white’. It makes a big difference.”

To read the full preview click here: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/23263

Sportsound
I've just listened to an abbreviated Podcast of Davie Irons guest slot on Sportsound's regular Tuesday feature 'Beyond The SPL'. Here's a short run down of what was said:

Rather than be introduced as 'Davie Irons: Morton manager' the podcast narrator (if that's the right word) called him 'ex-Gretna boss Davie Irons' - quite annoying considering the programme is called 'Beyond The SPL'.

Irons was only given a small segment and in his conversation with Des McKeown and Bill Leckie he said that the product (Scottish Football) needs to be changed, referring to the fixture chaos and specifically the number of times each team plays each other in a season.

The talk then turns to the play-offs and Irons seems quite incredulous about the fact we may have to play a two legged play-off before the play-offs. He seemed particularly annoyed that either ourselves or Clyde may have to play another six matches to avoid relegation.

Bill Leckie then highlighted a quote from Irons that appeared in that day's papers. Irons was quoted as saying he believes that should Gretna go out of business that "Everybody should be bumped up one place". This would mean that Stiring Albion would compete in the play-offs in place of us or Clyde. Des McKeown disagrees stating that he thinks Stirling Albion's poor season means they deserve to go down and bumping everyone up one would simply reward teams who had poor seasons. Irons counters by suggesting that if the team are not bumped up three teams from the 2nd division could benefit (because the play-off semi-finals would become, in effect, finals with both winners being promoted / staying in the 1st division). The podcast then cut out asking for listeners views.

Listen here (Episode: ScotFoot: 23 Apr 08 SPL fixture row): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/scotfoot/

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