Greenock Morton v Dundee

Cappielow Park

Saturday 17th April 2010

In the early 1870's the popularity of football was growing across the United Kingdom. Once such club emerged in the industrial town of Greenock in Inverclyde. The true reason for the name 'Morton' remains unclear, though the general consensus is that the club was named after the 'Morton Terrace', a row of houses next to the original playing field, where some of the players lived at the time. The name would be altered in 1994 to read 'Greenock Morton Football Club', to celebrate the club's links with its home town.

Morton left a mark on early football organisation as they were one of the founding members of the old Scottish Second Division, formed in 1893. It become in the 1980's a club known for cup shocks thanks to the goals of cult hero Andy Ritchie but success for the club in terms of silverware has been thin on the ground. To date Morton have played in a European Club Competition once and they were lucky enough to play Chelsea. After finishing 6th in Scotland's top division in 1967–68 Morton qualified for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup but were eliminated at the first hurdle after a 5–0 defeat at Stamford Bridge and a 4–3 defeat in Greenock.

Morton have occupied Cappielow since 1879. Cappielow's etymology is allegedly of Scandinavian origin, although details of this have never been confirmed by club historians. The current capacity is around 11,000, with 5,741 of these being seated. Unusually Morton purchased the Reid Kerr sponsored East stand from local rivals St. Mirren for £50,000 in 2008, to improve the away end facilities at Cappielow. This purchase would bring the stadium closer to the 6,000 covered seating areas but essentially would ruin the spectacle of the ground from a traditional point of view. The purchase was made to allow the club to potentially host SPL football.

The two areas behind the goal areas feel and look traditionally Scottish such was the norm in the 1980's. The western goal is known as the Wee Dublin end and is the away end. It contains non-backed bench seating which has been converted from the old terracing that once stood there. Such is the structure of this area of the ground fans still tend to stand being that the seats are benches rather than backed seats. Sadly, the main stand now contains plastic bucket seating that have replaced the old wooden benches that were a fixture of the ground until the late 1990s.

Across from the main stand lies another atmospheric area called the "Cowshed" which lies to the north of the pitch with the firth of Clyde behind. Formerly a fully terraced arena for both home and away supporters, complete with segregation fence down the middle which was once a common sight in Scottish grounds, it is now for home supporters only. Much of the frontal terracing has also now been removed and plastic bucket seats occupying its place.

Behind the eastern goal is the "Sinclair Street" end, with uncovered terracing where home fans tend to congregate. It offers excellent standing facilities onto the field of play.

The Game

For a long time it seemed that Dundee were bound for the Scottish Premier League. The club spent more than any other team and at one point were 17 points clear. Then it all fell through and the club started losing almost every week. Before the men from Dens Park new rivals for the promotion spot Inverness Caley and Ross County were knocking on the door and above them.

Losing this game would have meant that Inverness Caley would be Champions and it looked like this would be the case with Morton leading 2-0 with twenty minutes left. Then Morton caved in and the dark blues scored two late goals to leave Morton still in relegation trouble. It ended 2-2 with Dundee fans far from happy with the ongoing capitulation of the team.

Greenock is not the best place in the world, but neither is it the worst. Ground wise Cappielow is a fantastic venue and certainly amongst the best in the Scottish lower leagues. On this particular match day the pitch was also amongst the best ever seen this season and the surface put the pitches of some of the SPL clubs to shame. The reason for this could be the 'open' nature of the venue and its ability to attract sunlight. Some all covered venues such as that at Fir Park in Motherwell have pitches that can only be described as horrendous and the all covered stands certainly do not help.

If Morton ever get promoted to the SPL then know doubt the phoney ground regulations committees that haunt the corridors of the SFA and SPL will go so way to ruining the traditional spectacle of football watching at Cappielow. For the foreseeable future it looks like Morton will struggle to remain a 1st Division club and thankfully that is a result, if not for the finances and esteem of Morton, but certainly for the traditionalist.