Petrie baffled by poor show from leaders

Montrose boss Stewart Petrie was at a loss to explain his side’s poor performance as the League Two leaders slumped to defeat at the hands of Clyde.

Petrie said: “We didn’t do enough from start to finish.

“All credit to Danny Lennon and Allan Moore and I have no complaints about the result.

“We changed things about a bit but I would have expected the players who took the field to do better both defensively and offensively.

“We created a couple of chances in the second half but it wasn’t our day.”

It was a third below-par home display in a row by Montrose, following a defeat from Peterhead and a draw with bottom-club Cowdenbeath, but Petrie says heads will not go down.

He added: “We are still in a great position in the league. Ours was the only game in the division and we wanted to capitalise, but unfortunately we didn’t do it.”

Both teams took a while to get going, but Montrose had the first chance on 14 minutes when Kerr Hay shot narrowly wide.

Clyde took the lead on 24 minutes. The home defence failed to deal with a ball into the box and ex-brechin attacker Ally Love scored with a looping header.

Montrose hit back and Gary Fraser had a shot saved by Blair Currie, then the keeper kept out a 30-yard shot from Hay.

Clyde stretched their lead on 50 minutes. Tom Lang found David Goodwillie on the edge of the box and the striker showed his quality when he brought the ball down and smashed it home.

Montrose sent on Chris Templeman and on 58 minutes the big man had a header deflected wide. Currie then saved another Templeman header from a corner.

Clyde immediately broke to the other end and Goodwillie set up Mark Lamont to curl home.

Montrose gave themselves a glimmer of hope on 66 minutes. Templeman was tripped by Calum Home and Fraser scored from the penalty spot.

Montrose pressed and a Templeman header was headed off the line by Barry Cuddihy before a net-bound shot from Graham Webster was blocked by Martin Mcniff.