The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Petrie eyeing changes after defeat to leaders
Montrose manager Stewart Petrie vowed to take a further look at the possibility of bringing in players on loan after watching his side crash to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of East Fife.
The result leaves East Fife top of the League One table, unbeaten after six games, while Montrose languish bottom with just one point on the board.
The pivotal moment in the game came on 54 minutes.
Montrose had just scored to make it 1-1 when midfielder Terry Masson was sent-off for a foul on Aaron Dunsmore.
Petrie said: “The sending-off had a big impact. We had just scored to get back in the game and were in the ascendancy.
“Terry gave the referee the option of showing red as it was a two-footed challenge.
“That is the way Terry plays his football. He was fired up as we had just scored but it was a time when we needed to be calm.
“We were not good enough. We can’t afford to defend like that.
“Some of the boys let us down and there could be changes with the loan market still open.
“We need to get our first win as that will breed some confidence.
“We made a slow start last year, so there is no need to panic.
“Our quality is not so good this year, so we need to find a spark from somewhere.”
East Fife had the first chance on nine minutes when Ryan Wallace headed over, then on 15 minutes Masson drove over for the home side.
East Fife opened the scoring on 41 minutes. Disastrous hesitancy in the home defence gave Dunsmore a chance and he shot past Aaron Lennox.
Montrose equalised on 53 minutes when a Graham Webster free-kick wasn’t cleared and Blair Lyons shot home.
Straight from the restart, Masson crunched into Dunsmore and left his side with 10 men.
East Fife went back in front on 68 minutes.
Wallace played the ball through and Dunsmore smashed it high into the net.
The Methil men looked for more and Lennox saved twice from Scott Agnew and from Liam Watt.
On 76 minutes, Danny Denholm hit the Montrose post from close range.
Five minutes from time, Montrose gave the ball away and a quick break ended with Wallace firing home.
East Fife boss Darren Young said: “Conditions were horrible for both teams but we dealt with it very well.
“We scored a good goal in the first half against the wind and our defence was outstanding.
“There was a bit of slackness at the goal we lost but after that we had loads of chances and could have had four or five goals.
“I knew we had to get a third goal to finish things off.
“We needed to be more ruthless but they had only two shots on target all game.”
Young was celebrating his League One manager of the month award presented last week and said the accolade was a tribute to his players and all his coaching staff.