Greenock Telegraph | Sport | No repeat of last season

Thursday, 20th November, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 8th October, 2008 12:30

No repeat of last season

By Steven McArthur

Image related to story, see caption or article text

WE CAN DO IT: Stewart Greacen, above right, has been out of action since the first home game, against St Johnstone, but is confident his team-mates can fire up their season against Ross County on Sunday. Picture: Petra Boyce

SIDELINED stopper Stewart Greacen has been through highs and lows at Morton, and is confident his team-mates can drag the side out of their rock-bottom stupor.

Greacen, 26, has been missing from action since the second league match of the season against St Johnstone, and has been in and out of the physio’s room ever since.

It has not only been a testing time individually for the centre half, but it has also been an agonising period going through the same pain in the stands as his team-mates on the park.

He said: “There is nothing worse than watching from the sidelines. It’s been eight weeks and it is so frustrating.

“On the whole we’ve not been defending too bad, it’s been one or two goals and we’ve not been too far away. But the longer it goes the more fragile your confidence gets, and the harder it is to get results.

“If we got the rub of the green against Dunfermline we would have gone into Saturday buoyant, and we were in front against Clyde and lost a late goal.

“We get ourselves in the position to have a go, but we need to be stronger at the end of games.”

Having missed most of pre-season through injury, Greacen was hopeful of returning to the squad early in the competitive campaign. But that St Johnstone match proved his downfall.

He said: “I am doing full training, so maybe I’ll be back in a week or so. I’ve been to see two different surgeons so we are waiting for the first one to come back and reassess the exact problem.

“I did my knee at Livi [and missed two years] but this is nowhere near as serious an injury as that. The surgeon did say, though, that maybe I came back slightly too early.”

Greacen has encountered Cappielow lows throughout his seven seasons with the club, and said: “I’ve been low — there’s last year where it was all going wrong, then we turned it around in the last few games with a couple of victories.

“In 2002 the club was a shambles, and last year was terrible, looking over your shoulder at other teams to do us a favour.

“With a quarter of the season gone, we will end up in the same position if we don’t win games soon.”

Morton travel to Dingwall to face Ross County again on Sunday on cup duty, and Greacen nods to the importance of a victory to boost morale levels in the dressing room.

He said: “Sunday is an important game to bounce back. We’ve had great results in the cup, and a win would help us kick on in the league, something which, so far, hasn’t materialised.

“We believe we are good enough to turn it around, and we need to keep believing.”

And on the position of manager Davie Irons, who yesterday lamented his playing staff for Saturday’s collapse in Dingwall, Greacen said: “He’s not said anything in the papers he hasn’t said to the players individually. We’re all in it together, from top to bottom. We are fighting for the same cause.”

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