madton

Looked like a potential pumping at one point but in the end I thought we were unlucky not to take it to pens. Wasnt much in it for first 20 mins and then Thistle kicked on and controlled the rest of the half. I guess McKinnon will be pleased how we reacted as we dominated the second half. Badly need a winger and a striker as Mchugh is not good enough to be starting games. If we get the right players in, we should be ok going by the second half performance!

Yeah def needs to start. Something like this maybe for tonight; Scully. Tumilty Kilday Buchanan Iredale Telfer Millar Tidser McAlister MacLean Oliver Shame we don't have Jai signed up as he would be ideal to play up top behind those 5. Team badly needs a bit of width now. Would much prefer Jim in the middle but we have no one else to play out wide at the moment.

I think we will know quite quickly if that is the case or not... i.e as soon as he puts his first cross in the box!

Reghan Tumilty signs 1 year deal with Morton.

Reghan Tumilty signs for 1 year.

Early cup games have always been poor crowds. Many people on holiday, not on season ticket, rather spend their day enjoying the sun in a beer garden etc etc. In saying that, i thought the 430 travelling Morton fans was a decent number!

I think McKinnon wanted those players 100%. If he didn't want them, they wouldn't be at the club. It's not coincidence no, its 2 ex players who have a large affinity for the club who have either moved back to the area/wanted to stay in the area so of course they were going to be interested in us and likewise us in them as they are two very good players. As for Denny, Mckinnon tried to sign him twice before and was even speaking to him before he got the job. Clear as day it was his signing!

Worrying that of the 13 "available" first team players, 4 appear to be carrying injuries/not quite 100%. Get your cash on Thistle tonight!

What kind of changes can we really make? We only have McHugh and a few of the dev boys. Can't imagine Gaston is ready as he has only been back training less than a week. Waddell went off injured which is a concern so back 4 will prob be Kilday, Buchanan, Iredale, Strapp.

Luckily for us, the board don't handle the recruitment of players and we have a manager in place who does that!

You are both spot on, its not a diddy cup to me either and it should be taken seriously by everyone at our level! I think the circumstances we find ourselves in this year allows the club a little slack though. McKinnon was brought in late( end of May) and has only had 5-6 weeks to build a squad of 15 from 4. It's by no way complete, it still need 3/4 positions filled as well as a few to return from injury and the last thing we would want is for him to rush into having a completed squad in place for the start of this cup and then miss out on better signings a few weeks later had we waited. I think he has done the right thing in having 15 in place to allow us to compete but still leaves room to add 3 or 4 more for the start of the league campaign. I don't for a second think he will do a Duffy and leave gaps in our squad come the end of Aug and then panic buy in Sept ( Gavin Gunning and Andy Murdoch) or just leave the gaps gaping until Jan ( Frank Ross) He talks about having a squad ready for the start of the league season and I'd like to think we will have an all but completed squad ready for QOTS. Next season, I'd expect to be better placed as McKinnon will have identified targets and spoke to players potentially months in advance and also know which players he will retain/release much earlier than we have done this season. Well done on your result on Sat btw, with a settled squad and a few good additions, it looks like you boys might have a decent season.

Wouldnt read too much into it. 13 first team players in the squad yesterday and a few of them carrying knocks/just back from injury. It was also a new formation we haven't used this pre season so not really surprised at the result. McKinnons pre match interview suggested he would use it to look at players in different positions and use different formations so you sensed he wasnt that bothered about the result. We still need a few more quality players in and Ray will know that. He talks a lot about the squad being ready for August so as long as that is the case and we are ready for QOTS, then we will take that. Not ideal but not the end of the world getting beat yesterday.

Pretty much this yeah. We have 15 first team players and a few youths as backup but of those 15, Derek Gaston, Denny Johnstone and Robert Thomson are out injured so leaves 12 plus youths at the moment. Thankfully i don't think the injuries are that serious and they all should be back by mid August.( Gaston is back training already) We still don't know what is happening with Quitongo or Tiffoney either. Squad def needs another attacking wide midfielder and right back as a minimum.

Anyone know where Joe Cardle is hiding?? He training with anyone? Last we heard he had a few Championship offers but not seen anything since. Surprised he hasn't got a club seeing as the season starts on Saturday. Would like to think we are one of the clubs interested.

Horrendous mate, absolutely horrendous!