Don’t be fooled by Loons’ lowly position – Petrie

Montrose return to action after an 11- day break when they face Forfar in an Angus derby today – and manager Stewart Petri eh as warned his second- top Gable Endies not to be fooled by the Lo ons propping up the table.

Petrie said: “It was good that the clubs agreed to bring the game at Peterhead forward from Boxing Day and have a bit of an extended break.

“It gave the players a bit more time with their families. However, we have trained twice this week and we are fully focused on Forfar.

“I know that they are not happy with where they are in the table.

“I know their management team of Stuart Malcolm, Barry Sell ar sand Martyn Fotheringham very well and they are all very determined characters.

“They have had a lot of injuries to contend with but I know that they will be targeting a win against us and not just for local pride.

“They will want to get off bottom spot as soon as possible.”

Terry Masson is back in training but a lack of match action after a lengthy lay- off will see him miss out with Martin R en ni e also on the side-lines through injury. On the plus side, Chris Mochrie returns.

Forfar head to Links Park wary of facing Montrose – but Loons boss Malcolm is not ruling a win out as they pushed the Gable Endies all the way in their last outing.

Malcolm said: “Montrose are the form team in our league so this will be another tough test for us but not one we are fearful of.

“It is a derby and whilst there will be no fans at the game there will be an edge to it.

“We know that we are not on a good run just now but the local factor to the game will help us.”

A severely depleted Forfar have lost their last three but Malcolm is seeing a platform he can build on as he explained: “I cannot kid on that we were better than Cove last weekend.

“We battled hard and defended our box strongly. However, we did not play as well in the second half as we did in the first.

“A bit of magic from Mitch Megginson won Cove the game but if we can put in the high level of performance we saw in the first 45 minutes for the entire game then we have chance.”

The Loons are again without the injured Steven Anderson, Michael Travis, Darren Whyte, Sam Fisher and Steven Doris and moves to bring in new faces have not borne fruit yet.

Malcolm said: “I know that we need a good transfer window and whilst January is not usually a good window, we are working on things but nothing will be done before kick-off.”

● Brechin City boss Michael Pat on has started making the chances he believes are required to get the Glebe Park side off the foot of League 2, with a new goalkeeper and defender expected to be involved against Elgin today.

Experienced shotstopper David Hutton has agreed to add Brechin to his long list of former clubs following his release from Airdrie with Paton also hoping that a defender, who has played for the club before, will complete a return in time to face the Moray Men.

“That one is not so straightforward but hopefully we can get it done. There may be one other as well but we will just need to wait and see,” said Paton.

As for facing the second placed Borough Briggs side, Paton said: “Elgin are a very good side particularly when they are going forward as they have a lot of pace.

“Also, they are strong at the back where Euan Spark uses his experience to keep everything tight.”

Sean Mcintosh and Przemyslaw Nawroki are again absent due to injury.