The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Heady days at Links Park
MONTROSE: After play-off scare in 2015, the club has made remarkable progress
On May 16 2015, I drove north to cover the second leg of the historic first SPFL pyramid play-off between Montrose and Brora Rangers. More than 2,000 fans flocked to Links Park for the game with the great and the good from other clubs around Angus also in attendance to offer their support to their neighbours in their time of need.
If Brora had prevailed that day then the Gable Endies, who had finished the regular campaign bottom of the division, would have exited the SPFL and faced a decidedly-dicey future playing in the Highland League the following season.
Thankfully, they won the nerveshredding second leg to secure their place in senior football.
I for one will never forget the gleeful scenes at the final whistle and then my interview with one of the goal heroes on the day, big Marvin Andrews.
Fast forward nearly three years and the transformation in the fortunes of Montrose has been nothing short of remarkable.
Stewart Petrie’s side sit top of League 2 with Saturday’s 3-2 win over nearest automatic promotion challengers Peterhead almost certainly proving pivotal with the Gable Endies now three points ahead of Jim McInally’s side and with a game in hand.
Petrie has been in the game long enough to know that it is far too early to start putting the champagne on ice just yet but his side have given themselves a superb chance of winning the title and automatic promotion.
It is certainly an unusual position for Montrose to be in. Since 2011, they have finished eighth, eighth, sixth, sixth, bottom, eighth and then fourth in the old Third Division and League 2.
That fourth place came last year in Petrie’s first season at the helm since taking over from Paul Hegarty, the manager who had helped secure their SPFL status against Brora.
Petrie is far too modest to attribute the turnaround at the club to just himself but there is no doubting the impact the former Dunfermline player has had since he took the reins.
Chairman John Crawford has mentioned to me on more than one occasion that Petrie’s natural enthusiasm and passion has rubbed off on everyone at Links Park.
However, that would count for little unless it was backed up by tangible results on the park and Petrie has delivered those.
He was certainly not content to rest on his laurels during the summer after securing that promotion play-off spot in the previous campaign.
The manager was determined to have his squad in place early for this season and made a 12-man signing spree in just one night last May, snapping up the likes of veteran Martyn Fotheringham from Forfar and young defender Matty Allan from Dundee, while others such as key striker Chris Templeman put pen to paper on contract extensions.
A month later, at the end of June, Petrie then fought off competition from a host of other sides – including full-time outfits – to sign former Dundee United skipper Sean Dillon as a player-coach.
It was a major coup for the manager with the Irishman admitting Petrie’s vision for the club had been a big factor in him making the move to part-time football in League 2.
The recruitment policy has paid off in spades with Montrose now in the driving seat ahead of a Peterhead team that started the season as firm favourites for the title.
There will undoubtedly still be twists and turns in the remaining games before anything is decided.
However, for everyone connected with the Angus club, these are heady days especially when considering just how perilous their situation was just three short years ago.