No rub of the green for promotion push but Petrie remains hopeful

Montrose manager Stewart Petrie felt Lady Luck was against his side during Saturday’s narrow defeat to title-chasing Falkirk.

The Gable Endies had been targeting their fifth win in six games as they attempted to keep pace with East Fife in the battle for a promotion play-off spot, but despite a valiant effort, they left Falkirk Stadium empty-handed and now trail the Methil club by four points.

Montrose and Falkirk were both awarded penalties by referee Grant Irvine, but while Declan McManus converted Falkirk’s shortly before half-time, substitute Russell McLean missed a golden opportunity to equalise when his 70th-minute spot-kick was saved by Robbie Mutch.

The Bairns still had to survive the last 20 minutes without McManus, red-carded after handling the ball on the line, but they clung on grimly to record their third win over Montrose this season and stay a single point behind League 1 leaders Raith Rovers.

“We felt the big decisions didn’t go our way today. That’s the most diplomatic thing I can say,” claimed Petrie, whose side saw another penalty claim turned down.

“I spoke to Declan about the Falkirk penalty – sometimes you get them and sometimes you don’t.

“Things tend to even themselves out over the season, so maybe it’ll work out for us next Saturday.

“We should be scoring a penalty from 12 yards out, but we definitely deserved something from that game. Losing it hurts, but we’ll take as much as we can from it.

“Falkirk are a very good team, but we wanted to come here and have go rather than sit in and play for a goal on the break.

“The conditions weren’t good for either side, no doubt about that.

“Anything you get here or at Raith Rovers is a bonus, and these results won’t define our season.

“We’ve just got to dust ourselves down because we’ve got a tough, tough trip to Stranraer on Saturday.”

Stewart Petrie: Big decisions went against Gable Endies.