Morton Players To Coach In Schools

Morton have announced that the club's senior players will visit schools in Inverclyde as part of 'a fun based skills programme which will also incorporate football coaching'.

The programme - open to pupils in classes from primary four to primary seven - will see each school given 4 sessions for 2 classes between 1pm and 3pm on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. The 4 week block will enable the school to allow two weeks of one class having access to players between 2pm and 3pm with the other class enjoying the same access over the following two weeks.

The club will also give complimentary tickets to the pupils at the end of the coaching block.

This is reminiscent of something the club did a few years back. I can remember my younger brother was coached by John Morrow (pictured, above left) and Brian Reid at Overton Primary. He was also given tickets to a match and has been a Morton supporter ever since. This is exactly the effect Morton will be hoping this scheme has on the pupils in Inverclyde's classrooms ten years on.

gmfc.net - Schools Soccer Coaching – Primary 4s to Primary 7s

Your Chance To Put Questions To The Trust

The Greenock Morton Supporters' Trust will be holding an open meeting in the near future. This meeting will be open to all supporters and will give them the chance to put questions to the Trust.

Stuart Duncan announced the Trust's intention to hold the meeting on their official website yesterday. He said: "It is our intention to hold an open meeting, in the near future, to which all Morton supporters will be welcome where all question either relevant to Jim [McColl] standing down, his time at Cappielow, the role of the Supporters' Trust will be answered honestly and openly."

gmst.org.uk - Open Meeting for all Morton Supporters

Rae: We May Widen Fan Representation

Douglas Rae (pictured, left) has used the club's official website to say that they are considering widening supporter representation on the board because the Greenock Morton Supporters' Society (aka the Supporters' Trust) only respresents Trust members and not the support as a whole.

The item is a reply to the story that appeared in yesterday's Greenock Telegraph that suggested Rae had decided against accepting another Trust member onto the board in place of Jim McColl - the current board member who will resign at the AGM in December.

Inviting wider fan representation can only be seen as a good thing - as long as the respresentation is not withdrawn if the fans' representative dares to question or criticise the club. It will be interesting to learn the outcome of the discussions after the next board meeting.

gmfc.net - Ton Fans’ Board place in doubt

Is This The Reason?

After reading the news that it is likely that the Supporters' Trust will lose their place on the board when Jim McColl resigns I was wondering why Douglas Rae has taken this decision after seven years. The first thing that springs to mind is that he doesn't want someone coming in who would cause problems by asking pertinent questions and relaying unsatisfactory answers back to the fans. However, I also remembered reading an article on the trust website (http://www.gmst.org.uk/) in which they wrote to Alistair Donald to ask the following question:

I would ask if your position has changed with regards a financial investment in the club and if so, whether such an investment might be a precursor to you eventually making a bid for control of the club.

They did not receive a reply but Donald did meet with the Trust chairman Stuart Duncan (pictured, above left) in person. The article includes six bullet points detailing Donald's responses in which Donald basically says that he has no interest in buying or investing in the club at the moment. But may invest in future:

He has no intentions at the moment of buying the club. He believes the current board are doing a great job, they are very passionate about the club and its future. He may at some point in the future invest in the club.

He is not interested in the club for any other reason than his local family connections and that of his relationship with the Rae’s. He has no ulterior motive and no intention of doing a Hugh Scott.

I just wonder if Rae was annoyed with the Trust - the second largest shareholder in the club - for daring to question what was actually going on at the club. In particular asking questions of Donald who in Stuart Duncan's opinion is concerned with the publicity his place on the board has attracted.

My personal view is that the Chairman is making a mistake but that a sense of injustice could be the catalyst the Trust needs to renew interest and get more people involved. I know that the today's news has sparked my interest.

gmst.org.uk - Meeting With Alistair Donald

No Place For The Trust

The Greenock Morton Supporters' Trust are set to lose their place on the Morton board with the news that the Trust's representative on the board, Jim McColl (pictured, left), will resign at the club's AGM later this year.

The news appeared in an article on page 5 of today's Greenock Telegraph. It says that the Tele' understands that the trust have been told that there are no plans to accept someone in McColl's place.

However, Douglas Rae states that a concrete decision has not yet been made: "It is not finally decided yet. Next month's board meeting will decide."

I can only see this as a step backwards for the club.

Click the image below to read the article.



Jim McColl's Supporters' Trust Profile

Livingston 1 - 0 Morton

Livingston 1 - Elliot (76)
Morton 0 -

Att: 1733

Morton left Almondvale empty handed after a Calum Elliot wonder goal gave a Leigh-Griffiths-inspired Livingston a 1 - 0 win.

The team line-up followed the recent trend of 10 of the 11 players who played the week before starting with one player inexpilicably dropping out of the squad. This time it was Dominic Shimmin who dropped out and Allan McManus who came in. A change that I believe had a big impact on the game.



The first-half was a bit dull. I struggled to recall any memorable action from the first-half so I turned to the News Of The World, Sunday Mail and official Livingston website match report to jog my memory but they all basically said that the opening forty-five was a dreary affair. Howver, there was one non-football related incident that was controversial - a tussle between Kevin Finlayson and Calum Elliot. The clash happened at the opposite side of the pitch to the Morton support do it wasn't immediately clear what happened but it did look as if Finlayson aimed a kick at Elliot. There seemed to be a consensus that Finlayson was lucky to escape with a booking - thus avoiding another red card at Almondvale after his dismissal in the 6-1 defeat there last season - and this was confirmed by Livi manager Roberto Landi. Landi was honest in his assessment of the incident and suggested that both players should have walked: "I am happy the referee understood the moment but for me it was a red card. Both players should have been sent off, for sure."


From the Morton perspective it was quite a satisfying first half. We battled hard, defended reasonably well and restricted Livingston to few chances. You also have to remember that in eight previous visits to Almondvale we have lost eight out of eight conceding 19 goals in the process. In our two visits last season we lost 6-1 and 4-0. If the second half was anything like the first we could escape from West Lothian with our first ever point.

The second half was nothing like the first. It was open, end-to-end and full of goal scoring chances. Unfortunately the most important difference was the introduction of Livingston's Leigh Griffiths as a half-time substitute. The Scotland under-19 internationalist's pace and direct style gave the Livingston attack a new impetus - something that Chris Smith and McManus really struggled to deal with.

The first clear cut chance, and Morton's best, fell to James Grady in the 63rd minute. An excellent long ball by Chris Smith picked out the onrushing Kevin Finlayson. The right-midfielder should have done better but his unconvincing volley, which I think was an attempt at goal, ran across the face of goal where Grady had characteristically popped up to finish and make it one nil. Only he didn't. He somehow managed to put the ball wide of what appeared to be an open goal. It was a missed chance that you just knew we'd rue later on.

The game was getting stretched and both team were creating good chances on the counter. A Morton attack was quickly turned into a Livi attack when a great pass by Murray Davidson released Jason Talbot on the left. The Livi left-back strode forward and smashed a stunning long ranger off the junction of bar and post at Cuthbert's near post.

The next chance was created and executed by Peter Weatherson. He picked the ball up wide on the Morton right. He moved forward and, in a move reminiscent of a goal he scored against Dunfermline at East End Park last season, feinted past one defender before chipping Roddy McKenzie in the Livingston goal. This time the ball landed on the roof of the net rather than in it.

Griffiths' pace was giving the Morton defence - Smith and McManus in particular - a torrid time. He was creating havoc; he a had a couple of efforts blocked, almost rounded Cuthbert (but the Ton keeper did well to push him too far wide) and was involved as McManus cleared one off the line. However he did have a telling impact when his run and pass ended with Calum Elliot volleying a spectacular left footed effort into Cuthbert's top right hand corner from around 20 yards. A goal worthy of winning any match.

Morton had a couple of penalty shouts turned down. One of which looked a stone waller to me. Iain Russell pushed the ball past a defender on the touchline and was tripped in the process of going past the defender. However, the far side linesman, who was running the line right in front of the Morton support and who had an excellent view astonished everyone when he failed to flag. Livingston were then given a free-kick in the spot Russell fell. I can only assume the verdict was that Russell had dived.

Our record at Almondvale is now: played eight, won 0, drew 0, lost 8, scored 3, conceded 20.

I wasn't overly disappointed with this performance as we were beaten by a moment of true class and had a couple of chances of our own but if we are to survive I think we have to be looking to take a point from a game like this. A poor result against Queen Of The South next week and I think Davie Irons might be back to square one.

Morton (4-4-2):

1. Cuthbert - 8
2. MacGregor - 5
3. Smith - 7
4. McManus - 7
5. Greacen (c) - 7
6. Jenkins - 7
7. Finlayson - 6 (12. Russell - 80 mins)
8. McGuffie - 6 (15. Paartalu - 83 mins)
9. Weatherson - 6
10. Grady - 7 (14. Wake - 86 mins)
11. McAlister - 5

Subs Not Used:

16. Masterton
20. Stewart

Booked: MacGregor, Jenkins, Finlayson, Russell

*BBC match report has a few mistakes: it has Wake as an unused sub (he was used) and doesn't have bookings for MacGregor or Russell.

Cuthbert
MacGregor Greacen McManus Smith
Finlayson McGuffie Jenkins McAlister
Weatherson Grady

Livingston: McKenzie, MacKay, Talbot, McPake, Fox, Innes, McParland (Griffiths 46), Davidson, Elliot, Miller (Quinn 52), Hamill

Subs Not Used: Cave, McDonald, Martini

Booked: Elliot.

My man of the match: Leigh Griffiths (Livingston)

Sponsor's man of the match: Leigh Griffiths (Livingston)


Matchday Programme (Click to enlarge)














Official Teamsheet(Click to enlarge)













livingstonfc.co.uk - match highlights

Greenock Telegraph match report

Greenock Telegraph - match reaction

BBC match report

Sunday Mail match report

livingstonfc.co.uk - match report

livingstonfc.co.uk - match reaction

Tontastic pictures

Two Days A Week

According to an article in yesterday's Greenock Telegraph Morton goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert (pictured, left) trains with his team mates two days a week. He spends Monday and Tuesday with Falkirk, has Wednesday off and then trains with David Wylie on a Thursday and Friday.

The former St. Johnstone 'keeper said: “I train at Falkirk on a Monday and Tuesday, because I’m from Perth. It’s only 25 minutes from my house. They have good facilities up there it’s run by Jim Preston. I’m in at Morton on Thursday and Friday, and I get on well with Davie [Wylie]. He is a legend at Morton, and it is good to learn from an ex-player."

I realise Cuthbert has been one of our best performers this season but I still don't think that it's acceptable for a full-time professional to be doing this. I could understand if he was a part-timer but he isn't. In my opinion Cuthbert should be making the effort to train with his clubmates everyday rather than go to Falkirk on a Monday and Tuesday because it's closer. I'm no expert on the training goalkeepers do but you'd think it would be better if he were around his team mates more often in an attempt to build a better understanding both on the pitch and off it.

If I were Davie Irons I would be 'encouraging' Kevin to either move closer to Greenock or make the extra effort to travel through to Quarriers Village on a Monday and Tuesday.

Greenock Telegraph - 'Nothing Tops Keeping Clean' (29.10.2008)

Kevin Cuthbert - profile

Fatties XI

On the 9th of October BBC's Off The Ball programme ran an online feature called 'Fatties XI'. As you may have guessed the article listed 15 of Scottish football's fattest players. Two ex-Morton players made the list - Andy Ritchie (pictured, left) and Joe Harper.

Each choice features a picture and a comment below. Ritchie's says: "Andy Ritchie, Morton's Idle Idol, the Bellshill Bull, played outside-right and left-back to save him changing ends at half-time." Harper's says: "As tall as he was broad, rumour has it that Aberdeen's Joe Harper gave Oxo the inspiration for their cubes."

Whoever compiled the list redeemed themselves by choosing ex-St. Mirren players Barry Lavety and Mark Yardley in the 15.

bbc.co.uk - 'Off The Ball's Fatties XI' - Ritchie is #6 and Harper is #12.