Partick vs Morton for promotion

Phil Brown to Partick Thistle?!  You must be joking.

The permatanned former Hull and Preston boss, whose stock has inexorably fallen since that fateful afternoon in Manchester where he gave his half-time teamtalk on the pitch, has apparently stated his interest in replacing the departed Jackie McNamara at Firhill.  This is almost as ridiculous as when, in 2007, Neil Warnock was linked with Inverness.  In that case, the unemployed Warnock was really taking the opoortunity to keep himself in the public eye; I can't help feeling that Brown is doing the same.

Even if the guy has applied for Partick, surely the club's inability to provide him with an on-site tanning booth will prove a sticking point - that's why we haven't seen Jimmy 'tangoman' Calderwood pitch up there before now.

Partick could do with appointing a new manager ASAP, in order to keep their first division promotion challenge on course.  After the first couple of months of the season, it looked like a two horse race between Thistle and the newly-relegated Dunfermline, but the Pars have hit the skids both on and off the pitch (their difficulties paying staff are now beginning to rival the problems at Hearts).  Partick themselves have had a blip in the last couple of months, and both sides have been overtaken by Greenock Morton.  The Ton have been absolutely flying in the league, and have a five point lead, though Partick have two games in hand. 

With a return to the SPL within reach, I'm not sure the Jags will want to place their destiny in the hands of their inexperienced interim coach, Alan Archibald - though given the likely alternative may be Gus McPherson, or Billy Dodds, or both, the words "rock" and "hard place" come to mind.  Maybe I'm being harsh on Dodds, but the 'insights' he provides for Radio Scotland imply that he could write down everything he knows about football on the back of a postage stamp.  I'm certainly not being harsh on McPherson, who was a crude, uncompromising full-back during his playing days and whose previous coaching exploits at St. Mirren and Queen of the South give the impression that his dream XI would consist of a goalkeeper and ten Gus McPhersons.  Partick could, and should, do better than those two.

McNamara had built a decent squad at Firhill, with a few veterans such as Archibald himself, ex-St. Mirren midfielder Hugh Murray and journeyman striker Steven Craig supplanting a relatively young side.  Many of the players are either former SPL youth teamers - such as ex-Motherwell duo Ross Forbes and Steven Lawless, and former Hibs midfielder Sean Welsh - or, in the likes of Aaron Muirhead (Annan), Aaron Sinclair (Montrose) and Paul Paton (Queen's Park), the best talent that the lower divisions have.  McNamara had them well drilled, with a decent goal threat from Craig up front and midfielders Lawless and Erskine.  In the right hands, they are potential first division champions - but a lot will depend on who the board appoint.

Meanwhile, Morton haven't played in Scotland's top flight since 1988; they now have a hell of a chance to get back in with the elite.  In contrast to Partick, they are a team best described as 'pragmatic', I think; aside from their two outstanding young central midfielders, Fouad Bachirou and Michael Tidser, they are mostly experienced journeymen who have been playing at this level for years - guys like Mark McLaughlin, Kevin Rutkiewicz, Martin Hardie and Peter McDonald know what it takes to win this league.  The signing of Colin McMenamin, the striker who scored 20 goals in this division for Ross County last season but who looked painfully out of his depth in the top flight this year, seems to fit the bill.

Hardie, 37 in April, is quite remarkable.  A former Partick and Dunfermline player, he scored a shedload of goals from midfield - many of them crucial - after joining the Pars in January 2011; without him they might have been pipped to promotion by Raith Rovers that season.  He simply didn't have the legs for an SPL campaign though and was in and out of the team last year before being let go in the summer.  Having missed the early stages of the campaign with injury, he has already contributed 8 goals from just 13 starts.

So when the Cappielow club were drawn to play Dundee away in the Scottish Cup, there seemed to be a real possibility of an upset.  Yet the Dark Blues, hopelessly adrift at the bottom of the SPL, annihilated Alan
Moore's side 5-1.  In truth, the margin of defeat could have been wider.  It's dangerous to make a judgement on the back of a single game, but it supports my suspicion that, on paper, the gap between the bottom of the SPL and the top of the first division is very wide indeed.

If Morton are promoted, they are going to need considerable reinforcement to stand a chance of surviving.  Dundee signed twelve players last summer - eight of which joined after they were confirmed to be playing in the top flight.  That hasn't been enough to make them competitive.  Partick's squad may be younger, but many of their players failed to make the grade at SPL clubs before - that's why they are at Partick.  I suspect they would need similar investment to stand a chance.  Bluntly, neither of these teams is anywhere near as strong as Ross County were when the Dingwall club was promoted.

But that's a problem for next year.  With Dunfermline adrift and in freefall, and with Livingston's in-form youngsters having left themselves too much to do to catch the leaders, Partick and Morton will duel it out for promotion.  Given both clubs have a great history in the Scottish game, and that it's a long time since either were at the top table (it's nine years since Partick's last spell in the SPL finished), it'll be great to have one of them back.

L.