The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Montrose excused an ‘off day’
Montrose boss Stewart Petrie insists he won’t dwell on Saturday’s thrashing at Annan because his side still have everything to play for.
The Gable Endies saw their six-game unbeaten streak ended at Galabank after falling 4-0 behind in a disastrous opening 18 minutes.
But they remain in fourth place going into their final League Two game of the season at home to Clyde, and Petrie sees no reason to let a rare “off day” upset the mood as they bid to make the playoffs after being bottom when he took over in December.
“I’m disappointed for the fans who travelled a long way but I’m not going to be overcritical of them because they’ve been fantastic for us, to get us into the position we’re in,” said the manager.
“We had an off day at Annan but we lost against a very good side. We were 3-0 down after 13 minutes and against a team as good as Annan it’s always going to be hard to recover from that. Then we went down to 10 men, so we had a mountain to climb.
“We didn’t pick up properly at set-pieces but they’re a big physical side who are hard to play against.”
Rabin Omar, Barry Cuddihy, Steven Swinglehurst, Raffi Krissian and Peter Weatherson struck for Annan. Montrose, who had Iain Campbell sent off at 4-0, hit back late on through Kerr Hay.
Petrie is confident the defeat won’t dent morale as they bid to stay ahead of Elgin and claim a play-off slot.
He added: “We’ve kept five clean sheets in our previous six and then we go and lose five in one game. We were due a bad game, but hopefully that’s our bad game out the way.
“We’ll pick the boys up this week at training. They’ve been absolutely fantastic for us.
“To go from where we were to where we are now and have it in our own hands going into a home game on the last day of the season is a good position to be in.”