They have to go for it - an early goal could see Utd get a bit nervous, and could silence the home support, but in all honesty, I can't see it. Dundee Utd have only been beaten once at home all season, so it's probably just a hurdle too far for Morton unfortunately, but it's football, and anything can happen! I did hear that if Dundee Utd don't make promotion this year, they're going to fold, which would see them right down into League 2, similar to what happened to Rangers, so the pressure is all on them, which could also be a telling factor.
I'll have my fingers crossed, hope they can pull it off. I didn't know that Dundee Utd. were is such dire straights, or is that just a reflection of the state of Scottish football in general?
It is an indictment on the general state of football up here, many teams are teetering on the brink of going bust, especially in the lower leagues, where they are lucky to get attendences into four figures - Mortons average gate is between 2-3K, although when the bigger teams turn up there is a larger gate - I've seen two sell-outs (10K) in my 17 years up here, both cup games v Old Firm. In recent seasons, I'm sure Dundee Utd have been into administration a couple of times, but have just managed to see it out. Thompson (their Chairman) has stated that they can manage if they don't make promotion, but a lot of pundits are pointing out that the money they've shelved out on players to make it back up at first go is unsustainable at Championship level. Another issue that they have is the reletive success of their neighbour, Dundee, who's ground is only 200m away. There were near riots back in the late 90s when it was suggested that the two teams merged (this almost happened with Hibs amd Hearts too)!! I might be wrong, but I think Morton are the smallest full time team in the league, although some of the youngers guys have part-time contracts. There is very little money in the game, and most of it is swallowed up by Rangers & Celtic, who congratulate themselves on being sharks in a paddling pool! It's laughable to hear them go on about their teams, when in reality they are nothing but feeder clubs to the Premier League. They reckon that Rangers need to spend £50M to get anywhere near Celtic next season - money they just don't have, whilst both Dembele and Sinclair will probably find themselves warming a bench at Southampton or West Brom, thus giving Celtic another £20M to buy more talent and maintain the gap. In the lower leagues, there are hardly any transfer fees - at the end of the season it is a mad scramble to assemble a squad of out-of-contract players from other clubs whilst struggling to keep your better players - very rarely do players sign for more than one season at a time, so any decent players are snatched up by the bigger teams, and everyone else just fights for the scraps. Thats why Duffy at Morton has done such a good job this season, a few loanees from SPL sides, and some freebees and he's galvanised them into a good strong team who have surprised a few of the big boys. Depth of squad was always going to be an issue, and I think that's where they will come unstuck - even if they make it through tonight, they would still.have to play 2 games v Falkirk, then another 2 v the 2nd bottom SPL side (currently Motherwell) - still, we live in hope!!
Yep, still in hoops. They had a disaster with the new kit from Nike at the beginning of the season (sound familiar) so the local fans caused an outrage, and then had a vote on a five new designs, choosing this one.... And they had a competition for fans to design next seasons away kit, and this won..... Maybe not to your taste, but the locals love it!! As they say up here...C'mon eh Ton!!
Always follow the underdog - I used to work with a lad from Greenock back in the late 70s/early 80s and actually remember him crowing when Morton went top of the old Premier Division as it was then after they beat Celtic about October 1980ish for just the one week, I believe they had Andy Ritchie in their side then. The 80s we the halcyon days up there with Aberdeen winning titles and beating Real Madrid to win the Cup Winners Cup under Fergie, Dundee Utd were champions as well and reaching the semi-final of the European Cup and the UEFA Cup Final. Also Hearts being 10 minutes from winning the League in the mid 80s, it was only then that Souness became Rangers boss and brought top English players in that the Old Firm never looked back... Anyway, good luck tonight...
Thanks for that insight, very much appreciated. Reading between the lines of your post it sounds only a matter of time before it all ends in tears north of the border. If a number of teams fold, a domino effect could quite feasibly take place, then where would that leave Celtic & Rangers? They would have no teams to play apart from each other.
Celtic went 3-0 up in 11 minutes away at Aberdeen, in theory the toughest game of the season. Now 3-1.
Anyone else watching the Gloucester v Stade Francais challenge cup final from Murrayfield.......Brutal game in the tough sense....10 all at half time and a couple of good old fashion punch ups too boot.... 2nd half will be interesting as Gloucester are being taken to pieces in the scrums but are not giving the French side any real chances to move the ball wide to their danger men.....
Dundee Utd gone 1 up, 3-1 on aggregate, ginger twat Murray (he was an annoying prick in the first leg) - looking like the dream is over for another season
Chelsea go 1-0 up at West Brom after the Baggies miss two great chances. 5 minutes from the title now.
well deserved title for Chelsea. But no class in their celebrations after the final whistle. Tacky in the extreme
See the bloke on sky claiming only that the premier league is 'the most competitive in the world'. What happened to 'the best league in the world' or even 'the most exciting'? Normal service resumed after last year.
The "big guns" had a shock last year, and I don't think they will be that complacent again to let a minnow like Leicester manage to break their monopoly for a long time - the new money in the PL amd Champs League will see the gap maintained, there's a shocking 16 points between 7th and 8th, in fact West Brom in 8th are closer to the relegation zone (11points) than they are to 7th. It's almost inconceivable to imagine anyone from outwith those top 7 teams to win the league, which only makes last season all the more remarkable - we can but dream though, once TF has all his pieces in place...............
