Doakes

So how do we get off with posting pictures of a morton mascot being hanged in an official club magazine? I could name various other times we’ve had a joke about our rivals in an “official” capacity The double standards are ridiculous. If we’re gonna adopt a dictators approach to our ground and the rules, even when it comes to a derby, the game really is over

No never given guidelines. We were given pretty extensive rules on the drum, that were posted on the official site. As for flags and banners, we go by stadium rules. (Can’t be above a certain height etc) We try to apply common sense when it comes to content. “This love will last forever” was from a courteeners song. “ “This is our home, this is our fortress” we came up with ourselvess. Same with “The Fight Is On” “The Saints are coming” - Green Day / U2 - + a nod to our promotion bid As for the Morton ones - previously we’ve had “hopeless and soapless” Then of course “Morton scum, trophyless since 1922”, with images of our trophies behind it Personally don’t think we’ve ever been offensive. As a rule of thumb, we wouldn’t swear on a banner, scum seemed like fair game as it’s just dirty stuff floating on liquid - which reminds us of Greenock.... 100% meant as banter. But yeah, not everyone seen it that way

Sorry, what? The issue with the seating was that they had blocked off seats in W6, rather than the agreed seats at the front of W7. The reason that annoys us is that when we first got the section - they closed off a large part of W6, essentially isolating us from the rest of the West Stand. If the stand was sold out (it wasn’t) - we wouldn’t have asked for a place for the banners. Might seem a relatively trivial thing, but from our POV, it makes the atmosphere better when W6 isn’t blocked off , so that we’re not left on our own in the corner. Would rather have no sections of seats blocked off, but when we first got the section they said that from a safety POV, we were to have those seats at the front blocked, to stop people running towards the pitch when we score. At the Morton game, our argument was that if someone did run on the pitch, we could get into trouble for it - stewards in fairness confirmed that they understood our concerns and would take it into consideration

We were going to keep it quiet and accept whatever punishment came our way - but when we were told it was an outright season ban on all flags, not just banners - with no guarantee of an appeal. SLO suggested we wait 2 months and try to get the club to reconsider, but the season will nearly be over by then..... We felt this conclusion was overly harsh, so voted as a group, a majority wanted to put our point of view across. Don’t feel like this was an overreaction on our part. We have tried our best to be rational. Not dragging anyone through the mud - just want to be treated fairly

I mean apart from the banner in question, we’ve never had an issue. We self police our wee section pretty well.. I’ll be first to admit that the banner was probably not our best idea ever, it’s not seen as banter by everyone. We just feel the rest of season flag ban is a bit on the harsh side and would like the club to rethink. If they want to know what our banners say before each game, that’s easy enough to arrange. Can only really speak for myself regarding Facebook, would never speak to a fellow buddie like that. Poor from whoever said it to you

Fair point. We’ve had the same debates within our group. We hope the club realise they’ve overstepped the mark with the ban and we won’t need to do any of that. We’ve had the same debates within our group. Ideally want to keep the section going every game, we know the players love the noise.

Just to reply to some of the above We’ve never been warned since we started the section. In fact all feedback has been positive. Even from JR and the players. We knew the banner was gonna be on the line of what was acceptable - but was only meant as being a bit cheeky - drawing attention to how long it was since they last won a cup! There was no backlash from Morton fans, so can’t imagine they were too offended. In fact had a few of them backing us up on twitter. They had one a few seasons back with Tesselaar’s “shitehole” headline.. We hold our hands up that the banner was a wee bit on the line - and would accept a slap on the wrist or a few games flag ban. But till the end of the season? Don’t think it was that bad.

How can you not be overly concerned?? In 3 years time our academy could find itself fighting against the "elite" for talent. Talent that will be encouraged to make the step up to the elite levels. Our club is literally dependant on youth development.

Agree with all of that. Twitter is fun though, especially when combined with periscope. The rest I barely use

Honest answer from me - I like this reading this forum. The main issue is that the same few folk keep derailing threads and taking them off topic with massive rants about other users. Prefer twitter, more to the point, rarely gets personal. Perhaps the forum should have a character limit?

Any update where this is being held?

RIP Ireland

I thought Raith were very good. A lot better than last season! Playing with confidence, but not arrogance. We had too many players missing, didn't really get going. Don't want to be too critical of youngsters but they need to be trying a bit harder when they get an opportunity like that.... Didn't see any real desire to make an impact on the game Edit: thought big Ross Stewart did pretty well

Think this is a great point - if the stadium has a positive energy about it - it helps the team. If the stadium is full of negative shouts of "f**k SAKE CHEESY/SAMMY/IRVINE" etc - the bad energy takes over the stadium and the team play worse. Definitely a factor imo. As for the club statement - was there really a need for it? It's already in the stewards job description to tell folk to stop shouting abuse. Why risk the positive atmosphere to "clamp down" on a really small minority of wankers. As usual, fingers get pointed at our singing section - but anyone that's stood with us during a game will tell you that it's all positive. Few swear words in the songs but if you're gonna start saying that's not allowed - the game is truly f**ked

Brechin will have a game plan to try and sneak a draw or a narrow win. We usually struggle against those kind of teams.... Need to move the ball around quickly and get up to full steam

Great event, well done smisa

He's on the wind up, nae issues last time

You can add it to your wallet if it's an apple phone

If the demand is there, we should be running enough buses to cover it. Folk will still get there on public transport, but a bit crap if we can't run enough buses for everyone that would like to travel on one

Great idea Shull, loads of folk looking for seats for Saturday on twitter with nae luck since usual supporters clubs ain't running extras (not blaming them, they want to enjoy their day without all the stress) Perhaps contact the SLO with this idea?

Scottish football does need to be looked at. Unsure what guys like Regan and Doncaster are being paid for these days - I think our model proves that fan ownership is the future. A fan owned league structure would be interesting! Anything that gets away from the self serving corruption would be a positive step. Can't see it happening tbf. No need for an anti Rangers witch hunt, the EBT issue has been put to bed already. There's still an argument to be made for an overall review, don't believe 2 governing bodies are needed for the size of our country.

This debate on McGinn really confuses me. With the style of football we play, we're not expecting him to keep possession or control the midfield. We require him to dig in, create chances, take a few risks, and if we lose the ball a couple of times, work with the rest of the team to get it back. He's done that. Our current brand of fast football doesn't exactly suit his preferred style, but he's doing exactly what's being asked of him. What he does bring to the team is leadership. A few times I've seen him eyeball Stelios if he's play acting... which if were all honest, can be required at times Think he also helps to keep the shape of the team, he knows the game and reads it well. We would be a worse team without him.

I think it was a collective effort