Published: Monday, 20th October, 2008 1:25pm

It's King James

by Roger Graham

Print | Email

MORTON 1 CLYDE 0

IT’s in: James Grady celebrates his winning goal against Clyde at Cappielow on Saturday.
Pic by: James McFadden and David Bell

MORTON manager Davie Irons’ reaction after the final whistle, when he ran onto the pitch to congratulate the players, said everything about how important this win was to him and his players.

Given two games to turn round the fortunes of the Cappielow club, who had not won in nine league outings, the sense of relief was palpable.

He said afterwards: “It’s not about me, it’s about the players. We showed what we can do — I know it’s just one game — but it means so much to all of us at the club.

“I want to publicly thank the board for backing me and giving me the opportunity to bring in the boy wonder, Grady.

“I’ve known the wee man [who scored the winning goal] all my days and I knew what I would get from him.

“He’s like a bad penny. He just keeps turning up. I’m delighted for him, I’m delighted for the players and I’m absolutely delighted for the chairman and the board.

“It’s been a tough, tough time for us. A wee bit of pressure had started to build and the support was there.”

Asked how the nerves coped as the game went into added-on time, Irons said: “My mind flashed back to the first game against Clyde at the start of the season when we played six minutes of stoppage time and lost a goal in five and a half minutes, but I thought you saw a real desire from guys like Stewart Greacen and David MacGregor coming back.

FROM BACK PAGE

“I’m not singling them out either. But they’re like new signings, and wee Grady is like another new signing as well.

“If anyone doubted that these players wanted to play for the club, or that they weren’t trying — I can see sometimes where they were coming from — but we’ve put last Sunday to bed and they have bounced back with a real vengeance. Let’s hope they can carry that on in the next series of games.”

On 37-year-old goalscorer James Grady, Irons said: “He’s a wee star at times. I helped him at the start of his career and he’s now helping me at the end of his career.

“His ambition in life is to play as long as I did, but he’s got another six years to go before he does that.”

Clyde manager John Brown was annoyed at what he felt was an offside winner for Morton. He said: “The boy’s offside. That’s the bottom line. Grady’s offside by at least a yard, possibly two.

“We were poor first half, the better team in the second without any real cutting edge, but the referee has not given us one decision here today and in this league it’s very important that these officials get the decisions right. He got it wrong today and we lost the game.

“Morton started the game well. They were under a fair bit of pressure, but if we don’t perform we’ll be under pressure ourselves.”

Hamilton striker James Grady, on loan until the end of December, was delighted with his goal on Saturday, a strike that gave Morton their first win of the league season.

He said: “I’m glad to be playing again. If I can get to the end of the loan deal and leave Morton in a better way than I found them then that’s all the better for me and Davie [Irons].”

On the goal, he commented: “It was a great ball by Ryan McGuffie and I finished it.

“To be fair the boys at the back were magnificent in the second half. They were under pressure for long spells and they were throwing themselves in front of everything.

“There were a few scary moments in the goalmouth. But it’s only a start. That’s the thing to remember.

“We’re closer to Clyde now and if we win again next week we’re back in the pack a wee bit and that’s the main objective.”

Asked about a brief tiff between himself and Clyde goalkeeper David Hutton as the players went in at half-time, Grady laughed: “Goalies are a breed unto themselves. They get angry over silly wee things.

“He’s probably been beaten a thousand times, but mine’s annoyed him. It was just all good, clean banter.”

Asked if he felt his goal might have been offside, Grady replied: “I just bent my run at the right time. I spoke to the linesman at the end there and he said I bent my run perfectly and was just onside. That’s all you need to do.

“It was just great to see it hit the back of the net.”

On the subject of him having six more years to go to equal Irons’ record of playing until he was 43, Grady replied: “He was picking the team when he was 43. I don’t have that option.

“But I’ve beaten him at everything else.”