The Ghost of B A R P

Aye, ‘probably’ is doing some heavy lifting there…

That's the point (plus dissent and garbage refs). Nobody's getting hurt. Therefore, not a dirty team.

Aye, the only defined yellow-card offence is 'brutality', so you have a good point.

Totally agree. I’d go radical and have winners of section 5-8 and section 9-12 play-off in a set piece final (Tynecastle or Easter Road type gig) for the final European spot. Aim is to keep it maximally competitive (and give the broadcasters another wee sweetie). At the bottom, I’d have one go down automatically, second bottom into a FAIR play-off with 2-3-4 from the league below. Additional benefit here is that being safe all the way down to 14th might be an incentive for top flight teams to vote for change (currently only safe at 10th).

A 16-team league with a split into four sections of four after 30 games gives a 36-game season (with the post-split games evenly home and away). It also virtually guarantees the broadcasters their four games between the sisters (added bonus being that two of them are late in the run in). This is and always has been the answer.

Season over (bar a scrap for some extra prize money)... and has to go down as a missed opportunity: 4th place was there for the taking, but no point in rehearsing the many reasons we didn't take it. Before any new recruitment, I'd like to see us look like this: Mullen, Murdoch* Baird, O'Connor, Strapp Wilson, Blues, Crawford, King* Quitongo, Muirhead, Davies Oakley, O'Boy* (* Youth players who'll take the squad numbers up to around 22) Issues with that are a. whether we'll actually be able to retain Strapp, Crawford, and Oakley (but I'd argue we should push to the limits of what we can pay an individual player, otherwise they'll be playing against us); b. whether you take the gamble on Quitongo's fitness, but I'd be in favour of moving a physical therapist in with him and doing what we can to keep him healthy. Need to add: three defenders (a right-back, a left-sided centre-back, and ideally another who can play LB/CB); at least one centre-mid another wide player another out-and-out centre forward + a wild-card + one more youth player As far as strikers go, I think it would be worth asking whether Alex Samuel still loves the Ton, but, failing that, wouldn't be too upset if rumours about Jay Bird turn out to be true: has something about him and could work as a sub/sometime starter to take some of the pressure off Oakley (if we keep him). Assuming Ross County/St Johnstone survive the play-offs, the league will be wide open next year, with the strongest teams (Raith/Livi/Partick?) by no means unbeatable. Have a feeling it's now or never under Imrie...

Woosh…

Strapp for the long throws, surely?

Who's upset? And it most definitely is hysteria. I've seen a number of opposition players actually damage a Morton player... but I don't recall a single occasion where a Morton player has injured an opponent (haven't seen highlights, so won't comment on Baird). Football's a competitive sport. If we were over the top, fair enough; but we're not, hence the question as to why so many have decided to get their knickers in a twist over it.

We were running with five defenders before Strapp came back, one of whom is 39 (and another is Tyler French). And we have no credible alternative to Oakley as an out-and-out central striker. Beyond that, we look well stacked for wide players, but Imrie clearly doesn't trust too many of them. I'd agree that 20/21 would be fine, if it was made up of players the manager would use without hesitation, i.e. if someone gets injured or suspended in a particular position, someone automatically comes in to replace him... very tough to do that on our budget. My take on Imrie's remark is that he's decided to stop giving guys he's not sure about the benefit of the doubt. Most (good) managers get to that point sooner or later. Have a feeling there will be more out the door in the summer than we might have expected.

We were certainly shite on Friday night (although not so much the last time we played you)... but that doesn't begin to explain the ongoing hysteria about imaginary thuggery etc etc...

Never realised so many opposition supporters disliked us so much. Kinda flattering. Makes you wonder, though, what the response would be if any of our players actually did something heinous, which, as far as I can recall, hasn't actually happened this season. Not even once.

Imrie's post-match comments after Friday night suggest he'll take a different aproach in the summer; will be interesting to see if that means running with a bigger squad... or just being more ruthless about which of the current squad get contracts.

If we're spending wages on MacDonald, French, and Broadfoot next season, we are undoubtedly doing it wrong. Arguments can be made for and against many of the others, but those three, for different reasons, should be immediately 'surplus to requirements'.

Can I be the first to thank Ayr for the 10 (TEN) points they’ve kindly tipped up this season? More or less kept us in the division. Thanks lads.