Morton were able to rebound from their 1960-61 wooden spoon to Division One in 1964-65 by recruiting in Denmark, where there was a shortage of professional opportunities. Source.
Falkirk visit Cappielow. It's Ray McKinnon's first trip back to Greenock. Well, second. He had to return the company car he used to drive to the job interview in Falkirk.
Morton are 7th in the Championship with 10 points; Falkirk are 10th with only 3 points. Morton can finish the day anywhere from 5th to 8th. It's either 9th or 10th for the Bairns.
As tenth-place team in the Championship Falkirk are 22nd in the land. What was their worst standing ever? In 1977-78 the league was divided into three divisions, and Falkirk finished fifth in the lowest division, or 29th overall.
Gregor Buchanan grew up in Falkirk. Robert McHugh played for Falkirk FC from 2015 to 2017, and Regham Tumilty played for them last season.
Former Mortoneers Joe McKee and Mark Russell play for Falkirk, as does Canadian Marcus Haber.
Morton's task for today is to earn three points without being deducted points for fan misbehaviour.
The other matches: Alloa (9th) [1 - 0] Partick (8th)
Dundee United (4th) [1 - 1] Inverness CT (3rd)
Dunfermline (5th) [0 - 1] Queen of the South (6th)
Ross County (2nd) [2 - 1] Ayr United (1st)
Most of the games are between clubs next to each other in the table so there could be some shifting of positions today.
[Morton win 1 - 0. Goal by McHugh.]
Falkirk's longest-awaited first league win:
Jan 2, 1974 Dumbarton 1 - 5 Falkirk Game 17
Nov 21, 2009 Falkirk 2 - 0 Hamilton Game 12
Nov 1, 1952 Hearts 0 - 1 Falkirk Game 8
Oct 21, 1995 Raith Rovers 0 - 1 Falkirk Game 9
Oct 8, 1932 Ayr United 0 - 1 Falkirk Game 11
Their first league win this year came on Sept 29 in Game 7.
Can Falkirk earn promotion this season?
Since 1994, 28 teams have been promoted from tier II to tier I. One had 1 loss, three had 3 losses, two had 4 losses, six had 5 losses, six had 6 losses, three had 7 losses, five had 8 losses, one had 9 losses and one had 11 losses. A quarter of the way into the season Falkirk already have 7 [now 8] losses.
Manageria: Partick Thistle have hired Gary Caldwell, former Celtic star and manager of Wigan Athletic and Chesterfield. Berwick Rangers have hired Johnny Harvey who has previously managed various junior clubs. Dundee sacked Neil McCann on Tuesday and hired Jim McIntyre on Wednesday. Ian Murray is the new Airdrieonian boss.
Kicking the tires: The Daily Mail reports that a consortium with ties to Newcastle United is sizing up a purchase of Greenock Morton.
It's the Second Round of the 2018-19 Scottish Cup. Let's watch:
Beith [4 - 0] Linlithgow Rose
Brora Rangers [6 - 0] Coldstream
Cove Rangers [1 - 1] Auchinleck Talbot
Highland League versus ought to be in the Lowland League.
East Kilbride [3 - 1] Spartans
1928-29. Morton visited Bo'ness at Newtown Park and played to a 2 - 2 draw.
1951-52. Morton 1 - 4 Raith Rovers. After four straight losses Morton were in tenth place out of sixteen.
Lee Kilday's goals for Morton:
date park opponent goaltender competition
2014/11/22 Cappielow Stenhousemuir Greg Fleming league
2014/11/22 Cappielow Stenhousemuir Greg Fleming league
2015/3/28 East End Dunfermline Ryan Scully league
2015/7/25 Cappielow Dumbarton Mark Brown Challenge Cup
2016/7/16 Cliftonhill Albion Rovers Ross Stewart* League Cup
2016/8/13 Cappielow Falkirk Deniz Dogan Mehmet league
2016/11/5 Falkirk Falkirk Danny Rogers league
2017/2/7 Stark's Park Raith Conor Brennan league
2017/2/25 Tannadice Dundee Utd Cameron Bell league
*Shoot-out
Matches at Cappielow October 2018:
Oct 2 Celtic reserves 0 - 1 Aberdeen reserves
Oct 15 Morton reserves 0 - 1 QoS reserves
Oct 20 Morton [1 - 0] Falkirk
Oct 29 Celtic reserves vs QoS reserves [at Lennoxtown instead]
The draw for the Challenge Cup quarter-finals occurred Tuesday, with matches scheduled to be played the weekend of Nov 17. Bohemians of the League of Ireland drew a home date against East Fife. But the 2018 League of Ireland ends next week, after which Bohs' players are out of contract. So they have asked that the fixture be brought forward. When could it be played? Here are the two teams' schedules:
Fri, Oct 19 Bray vs Bohemians
Sat, Oct 20 East Fife vs Brechin
Mon, Oct 22 Sligo vs Bohemians
Fri, Oct 26 Bohemians vs Dundalk
Sat, Oct 27 Dumbarton vs East Fife
Sat, Nov 3 Arbroath vs East Fife
(Sun, Nov 4 Dundalk vs Cork City, FAI Cup final)
Sat, Nov 10 East Fife vs Raith Rovers
Sat, Nov 17 Airdrieonians vs East Fife
I think Nov 3 would be the ideal timeslot. It falls a day before the finale of the Irish football season, and allows the East Fife fans to stick around Dublin to take in a cup final. Instead of rescheduling East Fife's Airdrieonians match, the SPFL reschedules the Arbroath match.
People of East Fife: "How can something be ideal when it's an Absolute Shambles?"
[Through the middle of the week it looked as if the match would be scheduled for Nov 3rd, but on Friday the SPFL came out with "likely in early 2019". The semi-finals are supposed to go the weekend of Feb 17, 2019. If 2019 is like 2018 Bohs will begin to train in January.]
Arthurlie vs Falkirk. Both these clubs were in the Scottish Federation from 1891 to 1893. Arthurlie finished the first season in first place, Falkirk were fourth. The second season Arthurlie were third and Falkirk eighth. The scores:
1891/10/3 Falkirk 2 - 4 Arthurlie
1892/3/19 Arthurlie 5 - 4 Falkirk
1892/8/27 Arthurlie 7 - 1 Falkirk
1893/3/18 Falkirk 4 - 3 Arthurlie
Source.
Falkirk played in the Scottish League Division Two with Arthurlie in 1902-03, 1903-04 and 1904-05, six matches altogether. The Bairns won four, Arthurlie one, with one draw. Falkirk outscored Arthurlie 9 to 5.
UEFA Women's Champions League, Round of 16, first leg:
Barcelona 5 - 0 Glasgow City (Oct 17)
SWFL Division 1 South: Falkirk [1 - 2] Morton (Oct 21)
This concludes the SWFL schedule. [Morton finish in 11th place out of twelve, with 2 wins and 20 losses, one of which was a forfeit.]
How do you account for Morton's terrible season, coming as it did on the heels of such a good campaign the year before? I suspect it had to do with the uncertainty about promotion. The team did not know whether they were promoted until the schedule came out, roughly two weeks before the season began. Did their best players slip off to other clubs during the months of uncertainty?
Allsvenskan: Malmö FF [2 -1] Hammarby
J2: Mito HollyHock [3 - 2] Roassa Kumamoto
Kanto University League: Tsukuba [2 - 1] Toin University of Yokohama
Danish 1st Division: Nykobing [0 - 3] Fredericia
Morten is a popular name in Denmark. It's also sometimes employed on Pie and Bovril to remind Morton supporters of this result:
2014/5/3 Hamilton Academical 10 - 2 Morton
Swiss Challenge League: Winterthur [2 - 1] Vaduz
Regionalliga Südwest: 1. FC Saarbrücken [3 - 2] Mainz 05 II
SJFA West of Scotland Premiership: Clydebank [3 - 0] Largs Thistle
Which Scottish clubs have gone to the UEFA Women's Cup/Champions League, and how did they do?
2001-02 Ayr United 2QR
2002-03 Kilmarnock 2QR
2003-04 Kilmarnock 2QR
2004-05 Hibernian 1QR
2005-06 Glasgow City 1QR
2006-07 Hibernian 1QR
2007-08 Hibernian 1QR
2008-09 Glasgow City 2QR
2009-10 Glasgow City QR
2010-11 Glasgow City QR
2011-12 Glasgow City R16
2012-13 Glasgow City R32
2013-14 Glasgow City R16
2014-15 Glasgow City QF
2015-16 Glasgow City R32
2016-17 Glasgow City R32
Hibernian R32
2017-18 Glasgow City R32
Hibernian QR
2018-19 Glasgow City R16 so far
"Oh! There's a Judo 5 concert in Greenock tonight!"