Morton Winners Medal On eBay

A few weeks back I posted about the programme from the Morton v Rangers Scottish Cup Final that appeared on eBay, tonight I've noticed another auction that might be quite interesting to Morton fans.

An eBayer from Glasgow is selling a Renfrewshire Cup winners medal awarded to Donald Greenlees of Morton. The inscripton on the back of the medal reads: 'Won by Morton F.C. 1907 - 8 D. Greenlees'.

The item description includes some notes on the player in question:

DONALD GREENLEES
Donald Greenlees signed for St Mirren on the 25th May 1897 and played for them until 15th March 1907. He was transferred to Celtic on the 16th march 1904 and then back to St Mirren three days later on the 19th march 1904. This may have been for him to play in a benefit match. On leaving St Mirren he joined Morton on 24th May 1907.

The bidding currently sits at £62(hasn't met the reserve price yet) after 4 bids.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GOLD-ENAMEL-1907-MORTON-FOOTBALL-MEDAL-DONALD-GREENLEES_W0QQitemZ190213731649QQihZ009QQcategoryZ68295QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

7 Points Needed To Avoid The Play-Offs

Davie Irons (pictured) believes that we need at least seven points to avoid finishing 9th and playing in the play-offs.

Irons told the Greenock Telegraph's Roger Graham - who, in his match preview, also said he thinks we need seven points - that the first of the seven points must come against St. Johnstone tomorrow: “We have to win. That’s the situation we’re in. I think the minimum we need [to avoid remaining in the second bottom relegation play-off place] is seven points, and even that might not be enough.”

The Ton manager also hinted that there wouldn't be many changes to the team that lost at home to Dundee last week: “I don’t see us changing too much at all. We’ll maybe tinker with the system, but the bottom line is we have to score one more goal than St Johnstone.”

Clyde are 3 points ahead of us and face already relegated Stirling Albion at Broadwood on the last day of the season. On that basis I think both Roger Graham and Davie Irons are right in saying we need seven points - but I don't think we'll get them.

Our last three fixtures are: St. Johnstone (a), Dunfermline (h), Partick Thistle (a). I can see us picking up five points - a draw tomorrow and at home to Dunfermline and a win on the last day of the season. I just hope I'm wrong.

Davie Irons' comments: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22557

Roger Graham's match preview: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22556

Chairman's Updates

An update entitled 'The Final Furlong' was today posted on the Chairman's page on http://www.gmfc.net/. In his piece Douglas Rae talks about a few things (some of which also appeared in his column in Saturday's programme) but for me by far the most interesting was the information about the play-off situation.

Rae suggests that in the eventuality we do finish 9th we will only have to play the 4th place team in Division 2 to stay up rather than play a final afterwards (I assume that in this scenario the 2nd and 3rd placed teams will play-off for the other vacant spot): "As the team are certainly improving we should be able to triumph over the 4th top team from the Second Division thereby ensuring that we would play again in the First Division next Season." This outcome depends on Gretna going out of business or being relegated to division 2 or 3 because Raydale doesn't meet the necessary criteria for 1st division level. I'm delighted to hear this as I can't see us climbing above Clyde and the heart break of losing in the play-offs again would be too much to take ( I agree with the Chairman that we should beat Brechin, Alloa or Peterhead and that Airdrie or Raith Rovers would be much harder).

I was also interested to read that following a board meeting assistant manager Derek Collins (pictured) has been given control of the youth set-up including Under 14s, 15s and 17s teams. At this stage an Under 19s team is only a possibility which, for me, is unacceptable. The under 19s is a crucial stage for the development of these players. What are they supposed to do after leaving the under 17s considering we don't have a team competing in the reserve league. Hopefully Derek convinces the chairman to run an under 19s team as I think that's what it boils down to.

The chairman also talks about recent signing Erik Paartalu. Paartalu has been very impressive in the two matches he has played so far so I was disappointed to learn that he is only contracted to the club until the end of April - meaning that if we finish 9th he wont be available for the play-offs. I hope we secure Erik on a longer deal no matter what division we are in next season.

http://www.gmfc.net/chairman/news-view.asp?id=40

Morton 1 - 2 Dundee

Morton 1 - McAlister (8)
Dundee 2 - Antoine-Curier (25), Lyle (80)

Att - 3,478





Morton (3-4-3 with ball / 3-6-1 without ball):

1. Robinson - 7
2. MacGregor - 7 (14. Wake - 83 mins)
3. McLaughlin - 6
4. Millar - 6
5. Greacen - 8
6. Harding - 7
7. Finlayson - 6 (16. Stevenson - 86 mins)
8. McGuffie - 6
9. Weatherson (c) - 5 (12. Russell - 71 mins)
10. Paartalu - 7
11. McAlister - 7

Subs Not Used:

15. Walker
20. McGurn

Booked: Greacen.

Robinson
Harding Greacen McGregor
Millar McGuffie Paartalu McLaughlin
Finlayson Weatherson McAlister

Robinson
Harding Greacen McGregor

Paartalu
Finlayson Millar McGuffie McLaughlin McAlister
Weatherson

Dundee: Samson, Cowan, Dixon, McDonald, MacKenzie, Malone, Daquin (Lyle 62), Noubissie, McMenamin, Antoine-Curier, O'Brien (Swankie 40). Subs Not Used: Worrell, Clark, Roy. .

Booked: McDonald.

My man of the match: Stewart Greacen

Sponsor's man of the match:


Matchday Programme (Click to enlarge)












BBC match report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/7328047.stm

Greenock Telegraph match report: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22185

Greenock Telegraph match reaction: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22187 & http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22186

Bobby Collins: The Wee Barra

I've just finished reading Bobby Collins: The Wee Barra (pictured, left) - David Saffer's biography of former Morton player Bobby Collins and to be honest I was slightly disappointed with it. The book wasn't poor but the details of his Morton career were.

Details of his two seasons at Cappielow were crammed in to three pages in a chapter that focused on the end of his playing career (at Bury, Morton, Oldham, and Australia) and his time as a coach and manager (Huddersfield, Hull, Barnsley and Guisely).

This picture features in the book. Collins is the man walking down the guard of honour made up of Leeds United and Morton players who were about to play in a friendly match that was billed as his last in Britain. A full strength Leeds side won 4-1. This was how the match was described: "A local paper [The Greenock Telegraph presumably] reported: 'Bobby Collins ended his remarkable twenty-two year career in British football amid emotional scenes. Before the kick-off, both teams formed an avenue to applaud the forty-year-old midfield veteran on to the pitch. Leeds United captain Johnny Giles and Morton chairman Peter Scott made presentations to Collins on behalf of both clubs.' "

Understandably the majority of the book is devoted to his spells at Celtic, Everton, Leeds United and his time playing for Scotland but I was hoping to read more about his time at Morton. I wonder if any supporters who watched Bobby play for us in the 1969-70 and 1970-71 seasons could post a comment or email me (jonathan_mitchell_1982@hotmail.com) with any memories they have of Collins' time at Morton and I'll post them on here.

Between 1969 and 1971 Bobby Collins played for Morton 62 times scoring 3 goals (all competitions). He won 31 caps and scored 10 times for Scotland. 1 of the 10 goals was scored at the 1958 World Cup Finals - unfortunately in a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Paraguay.

A Celtic fanzine's review of the book: http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ntvcelticfanzine.com/images/rev-128-collins.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ntvcelticfanzine.com/reviews/review%2520128%2520collins.htm&h=259&w=177&sz=8&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=rDvVjZfmNivZeM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=77&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbobby%2Bcollins%2Bthe%2Bwee%2Bbarra%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Buy it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bobby-Collins-David-Saffer/dp/0752431765/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207321754&sr=8-1

Looks Like Us Or Clyde

Livingston look to have pulled clear of the dreaded 9th place in division 1 by beating Queen Of The South 1-0 at Almondvale last night. Leigh Griffiths (pictured - with the Orange boots on - standing bemused as the referee sends off a Livi player in the recent 1-1 draw at Cappielow) scored a controversial winner five minutes from full-time.

By winning their game in hand Livi have moved on to 36 points - 5 ahead of both us and Clyde on 31 points. Their superior goal difference - minus seven, compared to Clyde's minus twenty and our minus twenty two - is, in effect, another point.

It looks like a straight battle between ourselves and the Bully Wee to avoid 9th spot and a play-off place.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/7323090.stm

1st Division table: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/div_1_table/default.stm

Craig Black Out On Loan

For anyone who hasn't yet noticed Morton youngster Craig Black (pictured in action against Forfar) has moved to East Stirling on loan.

The right-back joins up with former Morton manager Jim McInally and will play for the Firs Park side until the end of the season. McInally also signed veteran midfielder Davie Nicholls who had been training with us for the last two weeks.

Craig came on as a substitute for the last 16 minutes of the Shire's 3-0 win over Albion Rovers - managed by another former Morton manager in John McCormack - on Saturday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/7317746.stm

http://www.eaststirlingfc.co.uk/news_articles/moreloans.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/e/east_stirlingshire/7319983.stm

Erik Paartalu Updates

According to yesterday's Greenock Telegraph former Gretna midfielder Erik Paartalu will be at Cappielow until the end of the season.

He told the Tele: "David [Irons] and Derek [Collins] have given me a lifeline until the end of the season. We’ll see where we go from there."

http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/21865

I've also got a couple of corrections to errors I made in his profile. An anonymous poster commented on my last post about the Australian and given the depth of detail I think it must've been Erik himself, a family member or his agent. The corrections are:

• He is 6' 5" (not 6' 2").
• His paternal gradparents were Estonian and moved to Australia after World War II (not his parents) and holds dual Australian and Estonian passports.
• He represented the Socceroos at the 2003 Under 17 World Cup (additional information about his international honours)