Morton fight for future

THERE was a nice bit of football played at Cappielow on Saturday - most of it by troubled Morton - but the day was mainly about the politics of the game and how fans differ in their attitude of what is best to do when the club they love looks like heading for obscurity.

In the eyes of the Morton support, club owner Hugh Scott is the villain in a scenario which sees a struggling team play in a dilapidated stadium with, apparently, little hope for the future. The big fear in the community is that the 126-year-old club could be closed down.

On Saturday, around 2000 fans staged a protest march - led by former club manager Allan McGraw - from the town centre to Cappielow, where they held a peaceful demonstration and when the match got under way, there were considerably more Morton fans outside the ground than in.

After the game, around 100 fans ''occupied'' the shed terracing opposite the main stand, then staged a sit in around the centre circle.

A line of police and security staff prevented the protesters getting closer than a few yards from the entrance of the tunnel as they chanted demands to see the Morton board. If deadly rivals St Mirren had paraded the first division championship trophy round the Cappielow track, they would have been more popular than Mr Scott.

No-one from the Morton board appeared, but the future of the club took yet another twist last night when prospective buyer Mike Peden was told to ''put up or shut up''.

Hugh Scott admitted that he had been in talks with Englishman Peden, who has been regularly stated to be interested in buying the club and was formerly in charge at Darlington.

Scott revealed that he has written to Peden to confirm that no progress can be made in their take-over discussions ''until our solicitors are in receipt of conclusive evidence that your funding for the acquisition of shares in the football club is in place and are in a satisfactory state of readiness to be called on.

''It would also be helpful for you to confirm that no deal at this point exists other than various meetings and discussions on the subject between us.''

Earlier, Scott had warned, following the demonstrations by the fans, that ''there are people abusing the good, loyal Morton support by pumping ideas into their heads that someone is going to come in and put millions into the club. That is not going to happen. Morton will continue to be operated on a tight fiscal policy.''

In between the protests, we saw a good performance from Morton, who comprehensively outfought and outplayed Premier League- bound Dunfermline. The scoreline in no way flattered them. It could, and should, have been more.

In eight minutes, Craig McPherson and Ross Mathieson played a neat one-two inside the penalty area and McPherson finished with a cracking low drive past Ian Westwater.

Morton clinched the three points with 16 minutes left when a magnificent crossfield pass from Harry Curran found Steve Aitken out on the right. He then picked out John Anderson at the far post and the big fellow, who had earlier missed two great chances, headed firmly past Westwater.

Dunfermline were totally unimpressive and manager Jimmy Calderwood was an angry man.

He said: ''The boys have done well this season in gaining promotion to the Premier League, but today we were an absolute disgrace. You see something like that and ask: are these professional players?

''We didn't perform. We didn't entertain, we didn't win tackles, and we didn't pass the ball. We let down the Dunfermline fans who made the journey to Greenock and we certainly found out a few things about some of the players.

''I know some people will say that there was nothing to play for. I'm a bad loser, so I want to win every game.''