Jimmy Boag Returns To Cappielow

Jimmy Boag returned to Cappielow recently and couldn't believe the changes from his time at the club.

An article in Saturday's match day programme reveals that the 51 year old was over on a visit from his new home in Australia. He dropped into Cappielow to catch up with Derek Collins and Davie Wylie - both former team mates - and while there he also took a tour of the ground.

Boag is quoted as saying: "I've got many happy memories of my time at Cappielow, with John Boag, Allan McGraw and the rest of the boys."

According to Neil Brown's player appearances web page Jimmy Boag played 73 times and scored 12 goals between 1986 and 1990. This isn't entirely accurate, it's possible these stats are for league appearances only.

To read the full article click on the image below to enlarge.

http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/player2/jimmyboag.htm

Whose Tattoo is the best?

After today's game a few of us were sitting in the Norseman and the talk turned to tattoos, and more specifically Morton crests.

Two of my pals, Sammy and Harry, have Morton crests tattooed on their upper arm and had a wee debate about whose is better.

I offered to put it to a poll on here to settle it. So here's your choices (vote on the poll to the right):

Sammy's











Harry's

Morton 3 - 0 Dunfermline Athletic

Morton 3 - Wake (14), Harding (59), Finlayson (73)
Dunfermline 0 -

Att - 2,428

Morton climbed out of the play-off position with a fine win against a hapless Pars side.

Davie Irons made the changes expected when he dropped Scott McLaughlin and Peter Weatherson and brought in Brian Wake and Iain Russell - both of whom were integral in our fight back against St. Johnstone last week. Alex Walker replaced David MacGregor at the back and Allan Jenkins was deemed fit enough for a place on the bench.

We took the lead in the 14th minute. An Erik Paartalu cross ( we must keep a hold of him) from the left was fluffed by Iain Russell but the much maligned Brian Wake was on hand to rifle the loose ball into the Sinclair Street end goal. Two goals in two games for a player the vast majority of fans have been overly critical of - myself very much included. Wake, although not the most talented of players, gives you everything Peter Weatherson doesn't: honest endeavour, movement, a goal threat, a nuisance to opposition defenders and add to that the fact that he actually jumps for headers (maybe he should recommend his boot manufacturers to Peter, as his appear to be made of lead).

The half-time whistle was greeted with a thunderous applause in appreciation of the first half performance. However, I think that, like myself, most people were still wearyof the slender 1-0 lead. The feeling being that we could still be punished for failing to finish Dunfermline off with a second goal. In addition to the need for more goals to ensure the three points we also needed to score as many times as possible to put us ahead of Clyde - who were 2-0 down to Hamilton - on goal difference.

Ryan Harding settled the home crowd's nerves by popping up to score the second in the 59th minute. The big defender - my man of the match - ghosted in at the back post to sidefoot an Alex Walker free kick past former Scotland international goalkeeper Paul Gallacher.

As this point we were cruising and it just looked like a question of how many more we could score to boost our goal difference. Dunfermline, a side including former Scotland internationalists and a host of experienced players, were in my opinion a joke. Guys like Scott Wilson, Stevie Crawford and Darren Young (who missed an absolute sitter at 1-0) should take a look in the mirror. These players are picking up a decent wage and for a side including players of that ability they should be ashamed to be sitting mid-table.

It was only a matter of time before we extended our lead and when we did it was a bit of a stunner. Kevin 'Finners' Finlayson ran at Muirhead on Dunfermline's left and twisted and turned leaving the defender tied in knots. The former Stranraer man then cut into the box past another defender before appearing to stumble and lose control of the ball. Just as everyone thought the ball was about to be cleared Finlayson wrapped his left foot around it and curled a shot into Gallacher's bottom right-hand corner and in off the post. An absolute beauty by another of Morton's much maligned players.

We almost scored a fourth near the end but Wake rammed a sitter off the under side of the cross bar and Paartalu drilled the rebound off the defender on the line. Both chances should've been scored but we can only be happy with a 3-0 win against Dunfermline especially when you consider this result combined with Clyde's 2-0 loss to Hamilton Accies (who secured the title with their win) meant that we are now one goal ahead on of Clyde on goal difference ( -21 compared to Clyde's -22) and out of the play-off spot into 8th place.

All we need to do now is go to Firhill next week and match Clyde's result at home to Stirling Albion...


Morton (3-5-2):

17. Robinson - 7
2. Harding - 9
3. Walker - 7
4. Millar - 6
5. Greacen (c) - 7
6. McGuffie - 7
7. Finlayson - 8
8. Paartalu - 8
9. Wake - 8
10. Russell - 7
11. McAlister - 7

Subs Not Used:

12. McLaughlin
14. Keenan
15. Jenkins
16. Weatherson
20. McGurn

Booked: Paartalu

Robinson
Harding Greacen Walker
Finlayson Millar Paartalu McGuffie McAlister
Russell Wake

Dunfermline: Gallacher, Woods, Wilson, Scott Thomson, Muirhead, Phinn, McIntyre, Young (Simmons 70), Glass, Crawford (Burchill 63), Burke (Bamba 60).Subs Not Used: Williamson, Murdoch.

Booked: Wilson, Young, McIntyre, Simmons

My man of the match: Ryan Harding

Sponsor's man of the match:


Matchday Programme (Click to enlarge)

BBC match report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/7353612.stm

Greenock Telegraph match report: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22982

Greenock Telegraph match reaction: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22983 & http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22984

Dunfermline match report: http://www.dafc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/FMatchreport/0,,10288~37120,00.html

Postman Del

In today's Scottish Sun Gareth Law previews the upcoming Scottish Cup semi-final between Rangers and St. Johnstone by talking to current St. Johnstone player / manager Derek McInnes - who also played for Rangers (and Morton of course).

In the article McInnes tells Law that he used to deliver mail around Ferguslie Park in Paisley during the summer break in his early years at Morton. He was so good at the job that he was offered a permanent contract but he knocked that back to stay full-time with Morton - even though it meant he would be on 'much less money'.

It would be good for some of our current players to go out during the summer and work a real job. It might make some of them appreciate the privileged position they are in as full-time footballers.

Irons interviewed in FourFourTwo

In the Planet Football section of this month's (May) edition of FourFourTwo magazine Morton manager Davie Irons is asked a few questions.

The article is titled 'Going Green: Why would an SPL manager drop down a division? We asked Morton's David Irons'. In this full page interview Irons is asked five questions - only two of which relate to Morton. They were:

Gretna were bottom of the SPL, but Morton lay second bottom in Division One when you arrived. A case of 'out of the frying pan and into the fire'?

DI: If you look at the relative positions of the two teams, that's true - but I left for football reasons. Morton is potentially a bigger club than Gretna, in terms of fan base, structure, and history and tradition too. It's an oportunity I couldn't turn down, and it came at a time when the publicity regarding the situation at Gretna came out. There was a huge amount of uncertainty about the long-term future of the club. Ultimately, along with [assistant] Derek Collins I had a decision to make for our families' sake. That was even more important than the footballing side of things. We had to put our families first and provide for them, and that was the main reason we decided to join Morton.

What are your impressions of Morton?

DI: Good. It's been a bit of a whirlwind, but I'm very excited at the challenge and I'm really impressed with the set-up. The chairman and directors are so enthusiastic and ambitious, and Cappielow is a traditional football ground, there's a real feel of a true football club when you go in there. More importantly, the players we have there have been very enthusiastic and very receptive to what Derek Collins and I have tried to instil in a very short space of time. But we've got a lot of work to do. We arrived with the club in a very precarious position in the league, and we need to improve that quickly. We were in the play-off position, and I told the players we have to concentrate on a mini-league of three teams - us, Stirling Albion and Clyde. We need to win that league and be out of the play-offs come the end of the season. I'm quite confident that, with the players we've got, we can do that.

Click on the images below to read the full interview.

Check post #14 on this thread for a PDF image of the article: http://www.greenockmorton.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=20167&hl=irons

Paartalu Eligible For The Play-Offs

Morton's Australian midfielder Erik Paartalu (pictured) is eligible for the play-offs (should we be in them).

In today's Greenock Telegraph Steven McArthur - who I believe is providing cover on the sports desk after Chris Fitzgerald left the paper - informs us that Davie Irons has confirmed that Paartalu will be available 'until the end of Ton's season - whenever that may be'.

http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22830

St. Johnstone 3 - 2 Morton

St. Johnstone 3 - Jackson (23, 27), James (86)
Morton 2 - Wake (49), Russell (73 pen)

Att - 2,341

Morton (4-5-1 First half / 3-5-2 Second half):

1. Robinson - 6
2. MacGregor - 5
3. McLaughlin - 3 (12. Russell - 46 mins - 6)
4. Millar - 6
5. Greacen - 5
6. Harding - 4
7. Finlayson - 6 (15. Stevenson - 87 mins)
8. McGuffie - 6
9. Weatherson (c) - 3 (14. Wake - 46 mins - 7)
10. Paartalu - 7
11. McAlister - 6

Subs Not Used:

16. Walker
20. McGurn

Robinson
MacGregor Harding Greacen McLaughlin
Finlayson Millar McGuffie Paartalu McAlister
Weatherson

Robinson
Harding Greacen McGregor

Paartalu
Finlayson Millar McGuffie McAlister
Russell Wake

St. Johnstone: Main, Irvine, Stanic, Anderson, James, Craig, Weatherston (Moon 73), Hardie, Jackson (MacDonald 89), Milne (McBreen 83), Sheerin. Subs Not Used: McManus, Cuthbert

Booked: Craig, Anderson.

My man of the match: Liam Craig (St. Johnstone)

Sponsor's man of the match:


Matchday Programme (Click to enlarge)













BBC match report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_div_1/7341862.stm

Greenock Telegraph match report: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22636

Greenock Telegraph match reaction: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22637 & http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/articles/2/22639

Finally - A New Laptop

My PC finally died last week and as a result I havent had access to the internet - hence the lack of updates on here.

Today I bought a new laptop meaning regular up dates from now on.