From the office of the chairman

I would like to take this opportunity to address questions raised by Ray McKinnon’s press conference at the Falkirk Stadium yesterday afternoon.

When Falkirk Football Club asked to speak with Ray on Friday I told Falkirk that Ray was contracted to Morton and we were delighted with the progress that had been made.

I also stated that we would require a six-figure sum for our management team. I was told that this would be put to the Falkirk board and that they would get back to me.

Ray contacted me within 45 minutes of that conversation to tell me that a reporter had told him that Morton had refused an approach from Falkirk. I found the timing of this development rather concerning and I couldn’t work out where this leak could have come from.

I told Ray at our meeting that I was planning to tell him of the approach but only after our game against Partick Thistle the following day. I thought it important that given the importance of the fixture that we didn’t want his focus taken away from the game in hand.

Ray told me that he had put together a great squad, he had a great relationship with all the players and had no desire to go anywhere. He simply wanted to listen to what Falkirk had to offer.

Falkirk were not allowed to contact Ray directly, but because circumstances had changed and Ray was telling me he was aware that Falkirk wanted dialogue, which he intimated that he wanted too, I felt that given our close relationship, I couldn’t deny Ray an opportunity to simply speak to Falkirk.

Whether or not we permitted Ray to talk to Falkirk is not the issue. Ray and Darren were not at any time released from their contracts with Morton. When they subsequently intimated their resignations in breach of contract, the resignations were rejected and they were told that they remained under contract to Greenock Morton until the end of May 2019, as we did not wish to lose our management team.

We are currently working with our advisers to obtain suitable redress following the actions of Falkirk, Mr McKinnon and Mr Taylor.

Crawford