BROTHER BEYOND
Hat-trick hero Callum out to sink sibling Connor and take Airdrie up
CALLUM SMITH hit a stunning hat-trick to spark Airdrie’s sensational comeback win - but now finds brother Connor standing in his way of winning promotion to the Championship.
The Diamonds striker turned in a man-of-the-match display as his side rallied from 3-0 down in the tie after 52 minutes of the second leg to run out 6-5 victors on aggregate after extra-time.
They now face Queen’s Park at Firhill on Thursday and then at home on Sunday for a place in the second tier next season.
But there’s an added edge to the clash with Callum’s younger brother aiming to guide the Spiders up at his elder sibling’s expense.
Callum, who at 22 is two years older than Connor, said: “I’m up against my brother now and we know it’s going to be very competitive. We just need to forget for the game that we are brothers and give it our all.
“It will be nervous for the family but one of us is going to be going up – so the family will be proud of us, no matter what.”
Montrose held a 1-0 lead from the first leg and Cammy F Ballantyne’s first-half brace looked to have put Montrose well on their way to booking a place in the final.
However, Airdrie produced a stunning comeback with Smith netting the first hat-trick of his career in between a Lewis Milne strike for
Montrose, before Calum Gallagher’s 87th- minute goal forced extra-time.
In the additional period, Celtic loanee Jon Afolabi netted in first-half stoppage time before Gabby McGill’s effort in 119 minutes proved decisive in the tie.
Martin Rennie struck for Montrose in the last minute but the tie had gone way beyond them by then.
The dramatic triumph sparked a pitch invasion from the delighted home support.
Airdrie’s squad created a club record run of 20 games unbeaten before their defeat at Links Park last Tuesday night and Smith insisted they always believed they could pull off a miracle to turn the tie around at home.
He added: “We were always confident, even at half-time when we knew we had to score three goals.
“We’ve done this all season, we’ve scored more than enough goals and we have a confident group of boys.
“We knew that if we kept digging in we would get there.
“At half-time we said let’s just give it everything we’ve got because it could be the last game of the season.
“We did that and we are through to the next round.
“For it to be 6-5 in the end is crazy – we didn’t expect that many goals but are happy it’s gone our way.
“It made it even more exciting for the fans who kept cheering us on, even though at one point we were 3-0 behind in the tie.
“As soon as we got one goal back, we heard the shouts from the fans and we just kept going and going – and in the end we got there.
“We are absolutely delighted. Everyone was absolutely brilliant. In the first half we were a wee bit off the pace but we knew we had the legs – we do running in every single training session – so when it went to extra-time we knew we were going to win it.”
For Montrose it was another play-off disappointment after losing 4-3 on aggregate to Morton on in last season’s semi-final clash.
And gutted Gable Endies gaffer Stewart Petrie couldn’t hide his disappointment.
He said: “It’s a sh** way to end the season.
“When you concede four goals in the second half, it’s not good enough.
“We gave ourselves a great position to get into a final but we lost so many soft goals from our point of view.
“Credit to Airdrie. We knew they would throw everything at us but we’ve fallen short once again. There’s worse things going on in the world than a football match but it’s a sore one to take.”