Published: Tuesday, 7th October, 2008 12:30
Irons believes in turnaround
By Roger Graham
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TOUGH TIMES: But Morton boss believes he can turn things round at Cappielow.
MORTON manager Davie Irons believes he is still the man to take the club forward after the disappointment of an opening nine league games without a win.
That spell — the worst run of league matches without a win since season 2000-01 when the club were in free-fall under Hugh Scott’s period of ownership — has seen the Ton slip to bottom place in the table, five points behind Clyde and Airdrie.
Asked if there was a crisis at Cappielow, the manager replied: “What’s a crisis? It’s a word I wouldn’t use in football. There are more important things going on in the outside world.
“In football terms it is not particularly good. But, before Saturday, we had lost just once in five games.
“Obviously Saturday was a big game. The boys let us down and I am very disappointed and angry.”
Asked if he still believed he was the man to take the club on, and if he had the backing of the dressing room, he replied: “I don’t have any doubts. We were in a difficult situation last season with 10 games to go and got ourselves out of it.
“We are only nine games into the season. I take responsibility for it, but you can only do so much once the game starts.
“I have told the players they have to make demands upon themselves. On Saturday we lost three goals in the last 15 minutes, but we had five chances to score before then.
“The players have shown they can perform. It’s been inches that have cost us games, but we haven’t turned that into positives. We have been losing goals at set pieces, yet we work and work on that.
“If the players don’t take responsibility and don’t take chances where does that leave you?
“If we score first, then we win the game — I am sure of that. It becomes a pressure situation and we have got to get it right.”
The manager then said that his best players this season have been goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert, central defender Dominic Shimmin, left back Chris Smith and left midfielder Jim McAlister.
He said: “Three of them [Cuthbert, Shimmin and Smith] are new players and two — Shimmin and Smith — are young boys.
“The older, senior players have to stand up and be counted.”
Asked if wage hikes had led to some players being in a comfort zone, Irons replied: “Some have higher wages, but they are still not paid as much as some others in the division. Jenkins and McGuffie have come from the SPL. With bigger money comes expectation and they haven’t lived up to that.Certainly, Jenkins has been very disappointing. I’ve told them that.
“Stewart Greacen is a big player for us and, due to injury, he hasn’t kicked a ball for us.” And the boss went on to say: “There has been a bit of a comfort zone at Cappielow. I have to ask ‘is there a mentality that can’t handle adversity?’
“I look back to when they won the Second Division and, after that, they don’t seem to have handled it.
“It’s results that count and I understand and accept that. Having said that, when it comes to the players they have to — to use a phrase of Joe Kinnear’s — have the bottle to go and express themselves.”
Meanwhile, for Morton it’s another trip up north to Dingwall on Sunday to face Ross County in the semi-final of the Alba Cup.
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