Montgomery irked as Dundee go unpunished
Manager feels club have gained unfair advantage after call- offs
NICK MONTGOMERY believes there should be consequences for clubs who find themselves in a similar predicament to Dundee – and is concerned that games being postponed in April contribute to a negative view of the Scottish game.
The Hibernian head coach takes his side to Motherwell today knowing that even three points at Fir Park might not be enough for the capital club to seal a top- six berth, with Aberdeen hosting Dundee at the same time before facing Rangers in midweek after their previous encounter was called off – the Dark Blues’ fifth postponement of the campaign.
“It’s given Dundee the advantage of not playing in midweek on a heavy pitch. I think it’s pretty obvious really,” he said, when asked about the main factor of Wednesday’s call- off.
“I saw Philippe Clement’s interview and I thought the way he spoke was fantastic; I was sat there nodding my head at everything he said.
“I think the most frustrating thing was that everyone knew it was going to rain in the afternoon and the pitch was already a real doubt so for the supporters and teams, a decision on an alternative venue should have been made earlier in the day and it would have been done and dusted.”
Montgomery was only too eager to point out that his full focus is on Hibs’ game with Motherwell, insisting that despite the club contacting the SPFL in the wake of the midweek postponement, he has been working on ensuring he sees a reaction from his players to last week’s 2- 1 defeat by St Johnstone - a game that, had Hibs won, would have put them in a more
comfortable position in the race for a place in the top six.
“It is something we can’t control, I didn’t comment on it. I’ve seen a lot of noise about Hibs this, Hibs that, but all we’ve concentrated on this week is a reaction to a disappointing result last weekend and knowing that we have to prepare to try to win a game of football against a good Motherwell team.”
The former Central Coast Mariners head coach has spoken repeatedly about the negative aspects of Scottish football and voiced his concerns that the Dens Park pitch saga will only add to that.
“It’s not something I want to get drawn into but you don’t want negative stuff about VAR, referees, and games being called off. It’s a quality league, it’s competitive, it’s physical. There are teams who are getting into Europe and two huge teams who can get into the Champions League,” he continued.
“There are a lot of positives in the league but it’s a shame that there is a lot of negative stuff around as well. That’s nothing that we can control. The fact that we are having this conversation and that there are no consequences for games getting cancelled at this time of the year when we are going into the split is really hard to understand,” he added.
He stopped short of outlining what punishment he felt would be suitable for teams unable to fulfil fixtures but reiterated his hope that lessons would be learned from the situation.
“There could be a lot of different consequences but I think rules need to be put in place at the start of the season so there’s no doubt – if this happens, these are the consequences.
“While there’s no consequence, it can be an advantage or disadvantage.
“But perhaps it’s something the league can learn from so that in future there’s a real clarity around the consequences if situations like this crop up, because it’s definitely taken the integrity of the competition into question and probably created a lot of noise around a big week for a lot of clubs.
“You want people focusing on the positive things around the league and not on cancelled games in April.”
Meanwhile, Montgomery laughed off social- media rumours that emerged in the wake of Hibs’ 2- 1 defeat by St Johnstone, claiming that he had not settled in Scotland.
“It’s normal. It’s not frustrating, it’s a part of life that’s been going on for many, many years. People must just be bored at home, wanting to start a story. The sad thing is that it gets picked up and it actually becomes a story, and that’s when you just have to find it amusing,” he said.
“There’s a lot of media attention in Scotland, there are big clubs in the league, different scenarios with the split and Europe and that creates more noise and more stories, I guess.
“I’m not one for social media. It’s something I try to avoid but I know how it affects the players in general.”