Morton 8 - 1 Strathclyde Police F.C.

On Tuesday night Morton defeated Strathclyde Police F.C. 8-1 in a bounce match arranged to maintain match sharpness over the International break.

The result appeared in the Greenock Telegraph and according to Chris Fitzgerald Morton's goalscorers were Chris Templeman (4), Brian Graham (3) and Kieran McAnespie. Michael Gardyne and Chris Millar played an hour of the match.

Jim McInally is quoted as saying the Police team has some Junior players in their ranks. I've also been told that there's a few ex-senior players involved in the Strathclyde Police team so they aren't exactly cannon fodder but as Jim McInally says in the Tele' "the results aren't important." What's important is the match practice these games will be giving players returning from injury problems in preparation for Saturday's match against Clyde.

http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=2&id=16145

Gardyne Feels Like He Belongs At Cappielow

In today's Greenock Telegraph Michael Gardyne has told Chris Fitzgerald that he feels like he belongs at Morton and that the fans, players and management are all fantastic.

Read the article here: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=2&id=16129

International Break Benefits Morton

Morton have positive injury news according to Chris Fitzgerald in today's Greenock Telegraph.

The back-page story reveals that Michael Gardyne, Chris Millar (pictured), Scott McLaughlin and Kieran McAnespie are all approaching full fitness after playing most of the bounce match against Gretna. While Alex Walker has recovered from a virus.

However Dean Keenan, David MacGregor and Lee Robinson are all a while away from returning to first team action.

Read the article here: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=2&id=16119

Best Signing Poll

In between player of the month polls I recently asked: Who Will Be Morton's Best Signing This Season? and the poll results were topped by £40,000 deadline-day signing Iain Russell.

Russell received 20 votes from a total of 52 which works out as 38% of the total votes. Jay Shields and Michael Gardyne (Michael got my vote) came joint second with 11 votes each (21%).

Interestingly Adam Coakley received two votes which proves that players read this blog, as do their Mums.

The results in full were:

20 votes (38%) - Iain Russell
11 votes (21%) - Michael Gardyne
11 votes (21%) - Jay Shields
3 votes(5%) - Kieran McAnespie
3 votes(5%) - Lee Robinson
2 votes (3%) - Darren McGeough
2 votes (3%) - Adam Coakley

Finlayson Full Of Confidence

In an article in today's Greenock Telegraph Kevin Finlayson has told Roger Graham that his run in the team has boosted his confidence and he thinks that this is the reason he's done so well recently.

Another interesting - if unsurprising - revelation in the article is that Finalyson says he is the second fittest player at Morton behind Jim McAlister. Finlayson explained that in regular bleep tests at Dundee University Jim McAlister always comes first and it's usually between Kevin and Chris Millar for second place.

Read the article here: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=2&id=16106

Gretna 7 - 0 Morton

In Tuesday's Greenock Telegraph Jim McInally said that we would be playing Gretna in a bounce game on Thursday (today).

Apparently we were beaten 7-0 in a match where everything Gretna hit seemed to go in. David McGurn played in goal for the first half (conceding three goals) and Aussie Ben Cheyne came on as a substitute at half-time (conceding four goals).

The Tele' article also said that Scott McLaughlin, Dean Keenan and Kieran McAnespie would all get run-outs as they need games.

*Update* - Today's (Monday 15th Oct) Greenock Telegraph confirms that we were beaten 7-0 by a full strength Gretna team. Michael Gardyne, Chris Millar, Scott McLaughlin and Kieran McAnespie all played for Morton. The rest of the team was made up of young players and, as revealed in this blog story, goalkeepers David McGurn and Ben Cheyne. McInally insists that he wont be signing Cheyne.

Tele' article: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=2&id=15946

Tele' confirmation of result: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=2&id=16119

September Player Of The Month

Jim McAlister (pictured) has been voted Morton's star man for September by readers of this blog.

Jim received 32% of the vote. That works out as 14 votes from a total of 42 votes - an improvement on the number of votes in the last player of the month poll. His share of the poll is slighty less than Dean Keenan's share of the August poll (43%).

His closest rival was last month's winner Deean Keenan with 16% of the votes (7/42).

The full results were:

1) Jim McAlister - 32% (14/42)

2) Dean Keenan - 16% (7/42)

3) Brian Graham - 13% (6/42)

4) Jay Shields - 11% (5/42)

5) Lee Robinson - 6% (3/42)

6) Jamie Stevenson / Chris Templeman / Michael Gardyne - 4% (2/42)

7) Peter Weatherson / Iain Russell - 2% (1 /42)

Linn Aiming To Impress Morton

For anyone who missed it the East Fife match report in the Scottish Sun's football pull-out Supergoals was almost all about Morton loanee Bobby Linn.

Linn came on as a sub and scored East Fife's third goal - a cracker from 18 yards - in a 4-0 win over Albion Rovers.

In Jeff Holmes' match report Linn says that he wants to score goals at East Fife to get his confidence up and prove to everyone at Morton he has a future at Cappielow. Linn said: "I had high hopes when I joined Morton but it has gone a little stale, although I am still desperate to succeed at the club. I'm at East Fife to score goals, get the confidence back and help my new team-mates stay top of the league."

The loan deal was initially reported to last until the end of the season but it turns out it expires in January. Until then Linn will train with Morton all week and join up with East Fife for an extra session on a Wednesday.

To read the section of the match report that focuses on Bobby click on the image below: