Win fails to fully mask manager’s frustration

SUCH has has been the bad press Morton football club has been receiving recently for its style of play, its chair was even joining in the chorus of disapproval in his club’s own matchday programme at the weekend.

Douglas Rae accused his own players of “just lumping the ball forward” and “running about like headless chickens”.

The inevitable questions at the post-match press conference had team manager, Davie Irons, cheerfully trying to diffuse any suggestion of an internal rift by saying everyone is entitled to their opinions.

Morton had just defeated Dunfermline 2-1.

But he did let slip a little exasperation towards the media, saying he phoned up one reporter recently only to discover he didn’t even know the formation his team had been playing.

Said Irons: “And I had words with one of the press from one of the evening papers on his report last week when he said that we had ten men behind the ball and just lumped the ball up the park.

“I said that was certainly not our tactics and asked him what formation we were playing. He said, ‘Three-five-two’, and I said, ‘No we never, we went four-four-two’, so he doesn’t even know the [basics].”

He declined to name the reporter in question.