Petrie’s Gable Endies have Fife double in their sights

Montrose boss Stewart Petrie is looking for his players to make it a notable Fife double in the space of a week when they play Raith Rovers at Links Park this afternoon.

The Gable Endies produced what the manager rated as their best performance of the season so far last Saturday when they visited the home of third-top East Fife and recorded a convincing 2-0 win – thanks to a fine early strike from on-loan Hearts teenager Euan Kennedy and a penalty from Martin Rennie in the second half.

Now they will look to go one better against John McGlynn’s full-time outfit, who are sitting in second, 10 points behind league leaders Arbroath.

Petrie said: “Last week was as good as we have been this season from start to finish. We got the early goal to settle us down and then Darren’s team came at us, which is what you would expect as they are a good side.

“But we got the penalty at a good time as well and we were really happy with the performance both from individuals and as a team.

“We are now playing one of the title favourites, there is no question about that.

“It is not going to be easy but we thought we did really well at Stark’s Park when we drew with them earlier on in the season.

“So we will certainly have to be at that type of level again if we want to get anything out of the game.”

Petrie added: “John has obviously come in and steadied things with his experience.

“So it will be a tough, tough game for us but again, one we are looking forward to.

“We are at home and we will go into the match like we would any other – looking to win.

“But we are not getting kidded on that just because we won last week we will do the same this week.

“They are a full-time side and there is no doubt they will be fitter than most teams in the league.

“They have a bit of quality about them as well with a really dangerous threat up front.

“We will need to be at our very best against Raith.”

Montrose will once again be without Matty Allan, who is still recovering from a knee injury.

Stewart Petrie is dreaming of a second successive Fife scalp.