Alibi

There are 3 professional teams in the south west, not 2. You have forgotten about Stranraer who are the most south west of all.

I think there is more to this than just the appointment of a manager. Hopkin is a lifelong Morton supporter; he is I suspect wealthy enough from his own playing career with Leeds and Chelsea that money may not be the main driver in taking this job; he is I understand also a shareholder in the club. The 3 year contract makes perfect sense if you look beyond the bare story of a new managerial appointment. I think Hoppy is here to stay for the longer term in some capacity. This appointment is going to help with building our squad - having a highly-respected manager will do nothing to discourage decent players from signing for Morton, and having him in post now lets us get signing early on rather than scrambling around for the dregs in July. Things might finally be looking up.

On the contrary. During my time supporting Morton, we were decent from 1963 until about the late 80s, with a particularly good spell from 1977 until about 1982 when we tended to be in the top half of the top division most years until towards the end of the season we ran out of steam. Watching the Ritchie era team was as good as it gets, and unlikely to be repeated. Thereafter we have under-performed woefully, with only occasional flashes of being a reasonably good team. I think more than anything else, Bosman pretty much destroyed our business plan which was based on selling a player every year, although we're not alone in that respect. At the moment, the BoD at Morton don't actually seem to be too bothered about trying to get promoted - the lack of ambition is palpable. Falkirk might have won the odd trophy, but to me they are a nothing team, basically uninteresting in the extreme. Basically they are invisible. Were it not for the Mckinnon pantomime (and undoubtedly Mckinnon comes out of that looking like a prize toley), I would take no interest whatsoever in your club. You are like Livingston but in a different colour of shirt. if you drop down a division, you may well keep going down. But money talks.

Morton now able to seek financial redress armed with the excoriating report on Mckinnon's and Falkirk's lying. no idea how much but likely to be the value of the manager and assistant manager's contracts; the sports science guy is I think under a different type of contract and small beer anyway. I never previously had any view one way or the other about Falkirk - they were just one of these dull nonentity clubs like Livi that were of little interest. For now, I'd be happy to see them relegated.

Thought for a moment that you meant Lyndon Dykes from QoS, but then I realised it was some development player from Ross County.

It's a striker we need. The midfield is fine. Although Andy Murdoch would improve it.

I assume you mean Tidser. He's a decent player but in recent weeks he seems to have faded away - rarely gets near the opposition goal now, but that's probably due to the team formation being a shambles. I reckon he would be a lot better with someone like Andy Murdoch in there somewhere to provide the pace and energy. We have no pace at all in midifled, possibly excepting Iredale when he's played on the left - he can shit a bit.

I don't think it was about money - McKinnon didn't want to keep Murdoch on. For that alone he should have been sacked.

Pint of Bitter and Twisted for you when Shankland goes in January then?

Is Hopkin not also a shareholder in Morton? Maybe he actually wants to buy the club in its entirely...

Not sure you are correct about that. The contract was offered and I think it was said on our forum that that triggers the development fee even if the offer is later withdrawn. However I read elsewhere that Livi aren't going to sign Jai anyway.

Bachirou is a talented player, as shown by his career trajectory after leaving Morton. Far more talented than the extremely average Brian Wake (whom VT clearly worships). Chacun a son gout, but I know which of these players would be welcomed back by most Morton supporters (clue: not a striker).

I don't really have any strong views on McLaughlin although he does seem to have some sort of obsession with his time at Morton. Someone either at Morton or possibly at QoS told me he was a nasty piece of work but that might just be that person's own opinion. Quite why he is so bitter is beyond me because I don't recall there ever being any ongoing animosity towards him while he was at Cappielow, other than the general abuse aimed at players who weren't up to the standard we wanted to watch (and that included quite a lot of our players in his day).

Very surprised that Murdoch was released. He could walk into any squad in the Championship (including ours imho). Strange that nobody has snapped him up so far.

Tam was very reliable the season before last - could put a bet on him to score first or any time and make a decent return on that. Last season not so much, and he was a bit erratic as a defender. Terrible distribution at times and cost us a few goals - always blaming someone else. I like Tam, no nonsense CB who will certainly not get any abuse from me next season, but he has weaknesses in his game. The fact that he has signed for a club that may well continue on a downward spiral to the seaside league suggests that there wasn't actually that much demand for his services at a higher level. Tam must be fuming that Rickie Lamie has made it to the top division - where I think he will do fine - but I wish Tam well. With luck he'll be in a struggling team in freefall though.

Just remember he's a centre back, not a left back...

I had a few quid on that game. When I was walking down the High St on the Monday to collect my winnings, I saw Rowan Alexander & Derek Collins (at that time the management team at Gretna) sitting in a cafe so I popped in to say hello and wave my betting slip under their noses. Rowan saw the funny side but Derek did not look happy.

I was disappointed to see Harkins leave, but getting Millar back more than compensates for that. I hope we keep Murdoch because his pace and energy will be essential alongside Millar and Tidser. McKinnnon doesn't seem to be hanging around with getting the squad refreshed - probably going to be a lot of signing news in the next ten days or so. In fact there had better be as we don't currently have enough signed players to make up a full team. Forbes will do well at Dumbarton, as long a he can stay fit. The season before last he was on fire, goals and assists every week. Surprised Tam O'Ware didn't have it written into his Partick contract that they had to sign Forbes as well, to supply the ammo at set pieces. For that one season, they were a terrific double act.

£180 for concessions. That's pretty good value. 18 games for the price of 12 at last season't £15 a game (though I think someone said the concession pay at the gate rate will be slightly less next season).

Iredale seems to have made a big difference to our team. I know he basically set up Dunfermline's goal on Saturday, but he has added a bit of steel to our left hand side. We're not far off having a pretty good team, although playing Tiffoney up front on his own ("I think he's on loan now" keeps coming to mind when I hear Tiffoney mentioned) with Oliver behind and No Jai looks to me a bit like playing without a striker, a rather puzzling arrangement.

Luca was very good for us when we had him on loan, and I think most people wanted him to sign permanently but he chose Falkirk, which to be fair looked like a decent move at that time. if he's not been getting game time, maybe he's lost his way a bit. This loan move could work well for Luca, Morton and Falkirk. If he does OK it would not surprise me if he signed permanently in January. Quite surprised how badly Falkirk are doing this season. Probably not relegation material but most folk thought they would be top four.

First the Morton forum pretty much ruined with every thread, no matter the actual starting point, ending up as a boring cliche-ridden squabble about things that are pretty much lost in the mists of time; now this thread going the same way. Can you all not just impose some self-censorship on the tediously boring in-fighting and take your arguments to a specific dedicated "boring stuff" thread that everyone else can ignore? Or meet up behind the bike sheds and have a duel with pistols at dawn. It has become beyond boring.

An international call up beckons... VT has it correct - 3-0 is a defeat; 5-0 is a humping. We've had a couple of 9-1 wins in recent years but that score hasn't been given an official name yet.

I know he started off well, but has he not fallen away a bit now that defenders have worked out how to deal with him? If it's a battle between players who are not the fastest, Forbes would win that one too.

Being Morton, I keep waiting for something to go wrong. Can't relax during a game unless we are at least 3 goals ahead. However as the season goes on, it's generally looking good for at least a playoff spot. If only Hibs would revert to type and go on a losing run.