Petrie hails side for digging out result

MONTROSE 1 STENHOUSEMUIR 0

Montrose manager Stewart Petrie hailed a “big” victory for his tabletoppers over Stenhousemuir, but admitted they were “fortunate to win in the end”.

With Peterhead drawing with Edinburgh City, Montrose are six points clear of them at the top of League Two, although the Blue Toon have two games in hand.

“Stenhousemuir are a really good side and Brown Ferguson will be disappointed to go down the road with nothing,” he said.

“There have been tight games all season and I said at half-time that if we scored first we would win the game.

“The boys showed character again. We have played better football but we dug out a result.

“That is nine points from our last three games against Stirling Albion, Peterhead and Stenhousemuir, so all credit to the guys.

“I have said before that your subs can win you 18 to 20 points a season, and on this occasion Jamie Redman went on and scored.

“We have a tight-knit squad and we defend from the front. Chris Templeman just keeps going and going and that is another 90 minutes from him.

“We are not looking too far ahead. We just want to take as many points as we can.

“We will train hard on Tuesday and pick a team to take on Elgin next weekend.”

On-loan Hearts youngster Harry Paton was the top performer for Stenhousemuir and after only 30 seconds he forced a save from Allan Fleming.

On two minutes Graham Webster powered a header just wide for Montrose, then on 16 minutes Templeman had a shot tipped for a corner by Chris Smith.

There was a bizarre incident on 39 minutes when the ball seemed to come off the hand of visiting defender Ross Dunlop. As Montrose appealed for a penalty the ball looped up and struck the bar twice before going behind.

On 51 minutes Fleming saved at the feet of Paton, then two minutes later Martin Scott hit the post.

The bumper home crowd of nearly 1,200 – boosted by a free tickets for kids initiative – were sent home happy when Montrose won the game on 80 minutes. Lewis Milne swung a free-kick to the far post and Redman headed home.