This Season/Next Season

[diegomarahenry]

Giving an honest appraisal  of your season and how you genuinely think next season will go from the starting point of now.

Hopkin was rotten and should have been pushed out the door in the summer. His rebuilding seemed to fit around the time he was on holiday and was coupled with the first window the new Chairman was involved. The players he signed were crap. Duffy gave a slight improvement but it wasn't enough to make us even a below average team. Other teams form kept us off bottom ultimately, I think if we had hit 10th place we would have stayed there. 

Bullen, Mathie and Glendinning coming in has been a slow burn, The players brought in at Christmas lifted the team but Bullen has taken far too long to get us playing in a way that is effective. I'd say it has taken until the last 3 games to get us playing in a way that looks like we might get something out of games.

On to next season. I think we may be more consistent and we will win more games than this season, however, Bullen doesn't like to make many changes so that consistency may turn wins in to draws or draws in to defeats.

Unless he hits the ground running and we go on a run of wins at the start of the season and build some momentum, I think it may be another long season. He can bring in all the quality he wants but if he doesn't pick them and sticks with the same line up for 6 weeks regardless of results its not going to be pretty. 

Finish 5-8th. 

 

[Richey Edwards]

I was delighted last night and was absolutely buzzing at the result and with the team. 

However, the season has been pretty bad but by some miracle there were two teams worse than us - although both beat us more often than we beat them over the course of the season.

I think we need a lot of improvements and reinforcements if we are aiming for a minimum of a top half finish next season. I am looking forward to next season already though.

I am going to boldly predict that we will finish 4th or 5th.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Richey Edwards

[Dunning1874]

Now the dust has settled, I think Gus MacPherson is a genuine contender for the worst Morton manager in my lifetime. If we'd stuck with him until the end of the season we'd have been bottom of the league and struggling to hit 30 points. We were carried by the individual performances of Jack Hamilton and Gozie Ugwu alone in the first half of the season, which is why our only wins were 1-0 at Hamilton in a total smash and grab where we could easily have lost 4 or 5-1 if it hadn't been for some tremendous goalkeeping while Ugwu scored, and 3-1 at Dunfermline where Ugwu ran the show.

The transformation under Imrie is nothing short of remarkable, in getting several of the squad to look like competent footballers and being the third best team in the division since he took over having been the worst before he arrived. That's a big cause for optimism for next season, but there are serious caveats to this.

He's turned some of them into competent footballers who can survive in the division, not world beaters. If we want to maintain top four form across a whole season to make a credible playoff challenge we still need big upgrades to this squad. I can disregard the pumping we took on Friday night as irrelevant due to effectively having a reserve side out, but the fact is over our last 11 games we only won 3 and only scored 7. Only Dunfermline were worse over the final 10 games of the season and we were the lowest scorers in that time.

That's a clear sign of where we need significant upgrades if we want to compete in the top half. We need far more attacking quality in the squad and while the defence has been solid, that's the place we're going to have something of an enforced rebuild with Brandon & McEntee's loans expiring and Strapp probably away as well. Imrie has shown he can do a great job inheriting someone else's mess, the next step is to build a squad of his own.

[Broken Algorithms]

It's harder to see teams being more mediocre next season - Ayr and Morton seem to have got their act together, Cove will have a stronger side than Queens, and if Dunfermline stay up I'd expect them to spend quite heavily. For ourselves, we really should've done better this season. We weren't far off the playoffs considering we didn't win between mid December through to mid-March. I'd expect us to keep McGlynn, and ideally we'll keep Brad Spencer. We'll need replacements in a few areas but there's no reason why we can't improve our position next season. I'd expect another relatively tight league where no one team runs away with it. 

[No_Problemo]

39 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

It's harder to see teams being more mediocre next season - Ayr and Morton seem to have got their act together, Cove will have a stronger side than Queens, and if Dunfermline stay up I'd expect them to spend quite heavily. For ourselves, we really should've done better this season. We weren't far off the playoffs considering we didn't win between mid December through to mid-March. I'd expect us to keep McGlynn, and ideally we'll keep Brad Spencer. We'll need replacements in a few areas but there's no reason why we can't improve our position next season. I'd expect another relatively tight league where no one team runs away with it. 

It seems like it could be a very even league next year - as you say you would expect Ayr and Morton to improve next year, as well as Dunfermline if they stay up. Dundee should be even weaker than Killie were (if they continue with awful decisions) and Cove will want to compete too. You would expect Arbroath to regress slightly and then add in the three playoff teams who will want to improve on this year. I think it could be an incredibly competitive league next year!

[the west curve]

25 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

It seems like it could be a very even league next year - as you say you would expect Ayr and Morton to improve next year, as well as Dunfermline if they stay up. Dundee should be even weaker than Killie were (if they continue with awful decisions) and Cove will want to compete too. You would expect Arbroath to regress slightly and then add in the three playoff teams who will want to improve on this year. I think it could be an incredibly competitive league next year!

Would that be the Killie that win the league?

 

[Superhursty7]

It seems like it could be a very even league next year - as you say you would expect Ayr and Morton to improve next year, as well as Dunfermline if they stay up. Dundee should be even weaker than Killie were (if they continue with awful decisions) and Cove will want to compete too. You would expect Arbroath to regress slightly and then add in the three playoff teams who will want to improve on this year. I think it could be an incredibly competitive league next year!

Can't see McGee getting the Dundee gig full time but his meltdowns is the championship could be hilarious

[AsimButtHitsASix]

2 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

Now the dust has settled, I think Gus MacPherson is a genuine contender for the worst Morton manager in my lifetime. If we'd stuck with him until the end of the season we'd have been bottom of the league and struggling to hit 30 points. We were carried by the individual performances of Jack Hamilton and Gozie Ugwu alone in the first half of the season, which is why our only wins were 1-0 at Hamilton in a total smash and grab where we could easily have lost 4 or 5-1 if it hadn't been for some tremendous goalkeeping while Ugwu scored, and 3-1 at Dunfermline where Ugwu ran the show.

The transformation under Imrie is nothing short of remarkable, in getting several of the squad to look like competent footballers and being the third best team in the division since he took over having been the worst before he arrived. That's a big cause for optimism for next season, but there are serious caveats to this.

He's turned some of them into competent footballers who can survive in the division, not world beaters. If we want to maintain top four form across a whole season to make a credible playoff challenge we still need big upgrades to this squad. I can disregard the pumping we took on Friday night as irrelevant due to effectively having a reserve side out, but the fact is over our last 11 games we only won 3 and only scored 7. Only Dunfermline were worse over the final 10 games of the season and we were the lowest scorers in that time.

That's a clear sign of where we need significant upgrades if we want to compete in the top half. We need far more attacking quality in the squad and while the defence has been solid, that's the place we're going to have something of an enforced rebuild with Brandon & McEntee's loans expiring and Strapp probably away as well. Imrie has shown he can do a great job inheriting someone else's mess, the next step is to build a squad of his own.

All of this. Will also be interesting to see Imrie's credentials as a manager when he's not brought in to put out the shithouse fire that McPherson left him with. He made tactical changes that worked but it was the improvement in attitude that was most revealing. Although we weren't mathematically safe until the penultimate week of the season there always felt like a cushion for the last six weeks or so and that's when performances dropped off. Was it a case of the kick in the arse Dougie gave them all dropping off and can he motivate a team with a carrot instead of the stick? Does he have an eye for a player? He'll be able to put his own stamp on the team and tactics a lot more next season and it's still a bit of the unknown as to what that will be. This might sound negative but Imrie has shown more than capable in all departments so far so it's more exciting to find out how he rises to the occasion than any trepidation it will go tits up. 

McPherson is, without doubt, the worst manager I've seen at Morton. Everyone else would potentially come close had mitigating circumstances. It's incredulous someone with such a long and, mostly competent career in football would be so out of their depth. 

[eez-eh]

8 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

McPherson is, without doubt, the worst manager I've seen at Morton. Everyone else would potentially come close had mitigating circumstances. It's incredulous someone with such a long and, mostly competent career in football would be so out of their depth. 

I feel compelled to point out that McPherson’s Morton still came within a bawhair of finishing above Hopkin’s Ayr last season.

Our efforts to out-shit one another the last 2 seasons must be unrivalled.

[No_Problemo]

1 hour ago, the west curve said:

Would that be the Killie that win the league?

 

You are hilariously sensitive. 

In terms of sides winning this league, Killie were a weak one - I would expect Dundee to be weaker. 

[Highlandmagar]

Kilmarnock win the league and the fans are still a sensitive wee bunch. Oh dear! Must be the Rangers gene within them.

Edited May 1, 2022 by Highlandmagyar Tier 3

[AUcal]

I had no idea that so many Killie fans were such precious wee losers.

[itzdrk]

4 hours ago, the west curve said:

Would that be the Killie that win the league?

 

Against all odds, true fairytale. 

[jagfox]

14 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

Against all odds, true fairytale. 

A Grimms' Fairytale...

[Monkey Tennis]

23 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

 

 I think if we had hit 10th place we would have stayed there. 

 

Did Ayr never hit bottom spot at all throughout the season?

I'm surprised at that.  Us, Dunfermline and Morton obviously did, but I'd have assumed your lot did too, given that they seemed in trouble all year.  

Either way, we displayed a real determination to make that spot our own when it started really mattering.

[diegomarahenry]

7 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Did Ayr never hit bottom spot at all throughout the season?

I'm surprised at that.  Us, Dunfermline and Morton obviously did, but I'd have assumed your lot did too, given that they seemed in trouble all year.  

Either way, we displayed a real determination to make that spot our own when it started really mattering.

We the first half of the season thankful that Queens, Morton,Hamilton and Dunfermline were rotten and we were due to come good.

The second part was spent shifting it after being overtaken by Morton and Hamilton while we were in free fall. 
The fact we finished as close to Morton as we did is Bizarre when you look at the results since Christmas. 

[KTID26]

8 hours ago, Highlandmagyar Tier 3 said:

Kilmarnock win the league and the fans are still a sensitive wee bunch. Oh dear! Must be the Rangers gene within them.

You are truly a master of banter. A real wordsmith in the making. No, hang on, you are none of these things your just a twat ! 

[Jacky1990]

10 minutes ago, KTID26 said:

You are truly a master of banter. A real wordsmith in the making. No, hang on, you are none of these things your just a twat ! 

You're *

[eez-eh]

5 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Did Ayr never hit bottom spot at all throughout the season?

I'm surprised at that.  Us, Dunfermline and Morton obviously did, but I'd have assumed your lot did too, given that they seemed in trouble all year.  

Either way, we displayed a real determination to make that spot our own when it started really mattering.

We were bottom after the first round of games but that was it. Only in 9th for a few game weeks as well.

Can see it here underneath the league table

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021–22_Scottish_Championship

[madton]

11 hours ago, eez-eh said:

I feel compelled to point out that Hopkin's Morton still came within a bawhair of finishing above Hopkin’s Ayr last season.

Our efforts to out-shit one another the last 2 seasons must be unrivalled.

Fixed that for you.

Gus was fecking horrendous overall, but it wasn't his team last season.

He then decided to retain a lot of said shite team which then made it his team.