Season 55 update: You remember the times when everything was new and everything was happening? Maybe during the years at Uni. Well, those times are long gone. What is happening now is: not much. Or at least not much is changing.

Which is just fine.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it, right?

The kitties continue to be adorable. The wood-heated sauna we have on the premises continues to be a constant source of feelgood and enjoyment. In short, life is good. Long may it continue.

Season 48 update: Gosh, I wish I'd kept better records of my time in SESL! It would be nice to be able to check how many seasons I've been coaching GM now. Anyway, I will continue to do so - this season back in Division 2 following an unexpected promotion after several seasons of underperforming and mid table mediocrity in Div 3. In real life, amongst all the hassle covid-19 is causing, life seems rather stable. And good, after getting married in August and moving from an apartment to a house in November :-)

P.S. The kitties are still adorable!

Season 44 update: Back in my native Kouvola, Finland, life is good on all fronts. Off the pitch that is ;-) Working for a local media company, spending plenty of time on and off the football pitch when not working and learning to live with the two (adorable) kittens we just got with my fiancée, there's plenty going on, but it's all good stuff!

2017:  Tapani Olkku is back!
I managed GM way back in season 11 and contacted commish via Facebook to arrange a return.

- If I'm correct, it's my fourth stint at SESL, having previously managed Annan Athletic (S21-26) and Irvine Meadow (now Elgin City, 3-5) along with Morton. - Tap

Managerial history:-  Paul Cockayne (S5-7), Tapani Olkku (S11), Andrew MacKie (S13-17), Craig McPherson (S18-18), Graeme Scott (S19-32), Alisdair Gibson (S33-37),

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Alisdair Gibson has had very mixed fortunes (which is a euphemism for "he's not very good"!) as manager of Morton since season 33 -  October 2014.

I lived in Dundee for eight years but have now moved into the wilds of Angus (about half an hour from the flashing neons of Dundee) into an old falling down house which needed some TLC but is in fact an almighty money pit. I am writing a gothic Western novel which has now reached the start of the second draft. The first novel, Denver, is finished in draft form but needs a publisher which is probably impossible in the current climate so I might shelve it for now or self-publishing might be the way to go; watch out for a crowd-funding intiitaitve sometime soon!

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Season 33 Howard Johnston: inherited an aging squad in July 2014.

2 strong WG's means Early Cross may be dabbled with.

*****  

Season 32 Howard Johnston. Promoted from ODFL end of Feb2014 ahead of match 9 season 32 to Partick Thistle.
PT plan to play Long Ball and move up the Divisions when ready.
Won playoff June 14, but then head hunted to GM in a swap manager move.

******

Graeme Scott (S19-32),

Graeme is a Field Service Engineer from Glasgow. Work commitments send him to far flung places at times like Kilmarnock, Azores, Dundee, Luxembourg, Blantyre Germany, Italy and Adana in Turkey. Sounds like a lot of fun, but in reality it's just another machine needing repaired!
He is Married with 3 Daughters, who along with their Pets, make it a wonder he's got time for any of this nonsense!

Graeme started his SESL [seh-sil] career as Caretaker/Manager at MONtrose in Division 3, season 18. Season 17 saw MONtrose avoid finishing bottom of Division 3 with the last kick of the ball, so season 18 was definitely going to be a challenge.

An unexpected CECIL [see-sil] Cup preliminary round win delivered high hopes for the season ahead. League success followed and after 10 matches Montrose were top of Division 3! A short run of bad luck saw them fall off top spot and then the distraction of the SESL Cup took over.
The SESL Cup draw made it unlikely Montrose would qualify out of the group stages, so when they achieved 2nd place and avoided the 'better' teams from another group, they went for it big time!
Hearts (eventual Division 1 Champions), Rangers and Saint Mirren (eventual Division 2 Champions), were all swept aside as Montrose looked to emulate their Season 5 Cup winning Hero's under the direction of the now legendary Christian Chung. It was not be though, as the Dunfermarrilo's were too strong in the final.
The SESL Cup campaign was delivering poor results in the league however, but a late surge saw Graeme take Montrose up to Division 2 as the only team to 'gain' from the play-off matches in season 18! When Division 3 Champions Greenock Morton lost their Manager, Graeme stepped into the hot seat and didn't look back.

Season 19 ended with Graeme being voted manager of the season for the division having secured the 2nd division title with 4 games to go. For the next 8 seasons, Morton have been a constant presence in the top flight with top 5 finishes in 7 of those campaigns. Graeme and Morton have never enjoyed much luck in the Cup Tournaments and to date have managed one single appearance in a final.

Season 28 was Graeme's 10th in SESL and he was voted divisional manager of the season for the 2nd time by his peers, this time Greenock Morton were Division 1 Champions. Until now Graeme's 1st season in SESL was his favourite but season 28 eclipsed the achievements of a division 3 side punching above their weight in the SESL Cup. The Division One Title and the acclaim from his peers for such in OLMEC's Premier League was Graeme's proudest OLMEC experience.

Graeme had to celebrate somehow, so he took his "SESL Widow" to the London 2012 Olympic Games...

Season 29? Not a chance!

SEASON 29 saw some pretty decent performances and just a few results short of defending the Championship which was a disappointment, however finishing 3rd in our usual "also ran" placing was actually a good overall performance.

We did make it to our first CECIL CUP Final only do be undone by the 2nd Division Runner's up Hearts, so runner up medals all round which quickly made their way onto ebay. The SESL Cup campaign was going so well I took my eye off the ball and lost out at the quarter finals, though to be fair it was a very hard fought competition in season 29 with some top teams having their eye on the prize, we were not one of them.

The squad is getting tired and tatty round the edges, it needs a serious overhaul and Season 30 will have to be the season to do it. There are many players here with Championship medals on the mantelpiece at home, they will be the experienced guys forming the backbone of the squad while we set about bringing in the stars of future seasons. Looking forward to one of the most challenging seasons I've had at Morton.

SEASON 30 Was about as tough as they come; Quarter final in the CECIL Cup and making the KO stages of the SESL Cup were decent results given the state I've let the squad get into.
At the start of the season, a mid place finish was hopeful, I really feared the worst this season. Thankfully with a few well chosen wins we avoided the play-offs and 9th is again a top 10 finish! For me, this was an incredible achievement.
There seems to be more savvy managers kicking about these days and the game is getting much more difficult. In the 2 seasons before our Championship win, we had a trading tactic that worked out for us and delivered the 1st Division trophy! That same tactic has not been going so well as we are now short of decent back-up. I've always felt that a good top 17 players is where a team can be judged and we at Morton are bringing that round again.
Season 31 will see us add to the apprentices brought in last season and trained here at Cappielow, we won our sponsorship deal with the apps last season, which paid for the 200k DP fine. I don't feel we were very aggressive at all in season 30 and with just a handful of games to go, played without aggression at all, picked up 2 red cards in the last session. So we start Season 31 without 2 of our best players and we will be paying a fine at the end of this season now anyway and have budgeted the DP fine of 300k into our numbers this season. Grrrr!