Improvements prompt Garden to target top four

MONTROSE BOSS Stuart Garden is targeting a top four finish after his side’s encouraging start to the season, writes Craig Smith.

The Gable Endies finished bottom of the Third Division in 2009-10 and a lowly eighth in each of the past two seasons but Garden’s men are sitting in fifth spot after a 2-1 win at Clyde last weekend.

That is a sign of progress, according to Garden, and he hopes to see that upward curve continue over the coming weeks.

“I think we need to be aiming for the play-offs at least,” he revealed.

“The players know that that is their target for the season and I think now they are starting to believe in themselves where they didn’t before.

“Their confidence has improved a lot.

“Montrose have been at the bottom of the table for the past four or five years and losing does become a habit but it’s been an enjoyable start to the season.

“At times we lack consistency but there are definite signs of improvement.

“The players are really starting to gel now even though we brought in about seven or eight players over the summer.”

Victory at the weekend drew Montrose level on points with fourth-placed Queen’s Park and they welcome the Spiders to Links Park on Saturday, with the chance to leap into the playoff positions at stake.

Garden added that he thinks some of the new faces added to the squad over the summer have done much to boost morale.

“I made a point of bringing in boys with a positive attitude,” he said.

“Craig McLeish, Ricky McIntosh, David Gray and others are all really positive and also bring in a lot of experience.”

A R B ROATH h ave announced that tickets for their Scottish Cup clash away to Celtic will go on sale on Sunday morning.

Admission for the game on Saturday December 1 has been set at £12 for adults and £6 for concessions and tickets will be sold on a first-come, f irst-served basis from 11am-1pm at Gayfield.

Any tickets remaining will then be sold on subsequent weekday mornings from 9am-1pm.

Meanwhile, at least four supporters buses will be running to the game.

Bus tickets cost £10 and can be purchased during the same times as the match tickets. HEARTS WILL face no additional sanction from the Scottish Premier League after members of their firstteam squad agreed to defer wages due tomorrow.

Players deferring their wages is not considered a rule breach by the SPL. Instead, the action is a contractual amendment, so Hearts avoid further penalty.

Following the failure to pay manager John McGlynn and the squad in full in September and last month, the William Hill Scottish Cup winners were placed under a 60-day transfer embargo by the SPL.

The deferral wa s revealed last night when Hearts announced they had been granted an extension, until December 3, to settle their debt of £449,692.04 to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

The Edinburgh club, whose agreement splits the payment, have also provided HMRC with assurances future payments would be made in a “timeous manner.”

Director Sergejus Fedotovas yesterday said: “We’ve been able to produce the evidence of our ability to pay and we are very much confident it will be done on time”.

The negotiation came after Hearts were served with a winding-up petition and given eight days in which to pay what they owed, putting their future in severe danger.

On the day the agreement with HMRC was announced, Hearts also declined a takeover offer from the Foundation of Hearts consortium, led by Edinburgh businessman Alex Mackie.

Fedotovas admitted bids would be considered and discussions on the possibility of future supporter ownership took place at Tynecastle yesterday with Supporters Direct Scotland’s Paul Goodwin.

Supporters Direct is a Government-backed organisation set up to promote fan ownership of football clubs.

Following the fourth meeting between the parties, Goodwin told BBC Scotland: “I think there’ll be major progression in the foreseeable future.

“The main focus of today was to get into positive dialogue and that happened.”

Stuart Garden — players are beginning to gel.