By Gary McKenzie
October 23 2003

John Sheran departed as Montrose manager after Saturday's 3-2 defeat by league leaders, Stirling Albion. So who's next for the job? The news of John Sheran's departure broke on the pages of the MoMoSuperMo message board only hours after the end of Saturday's defeat, and was confirmed soon after. The game was not Montrose's worst performance of the season by any means, but the pressure had been building on the former manager for some time.

Reports that appeared in the press on Sunday and Monday appeared to suggest that Sheran was blaming a lack of support from the club's board for his demise.

Chairman, John Paton, issued a further explanatory statement which is reproduced below (with thanks to Alex L)

"After 5 years loyal service as Assistant Manager and latterly Manager it was with sadness that we said Good Bye to John Sheran. John was dedicated to this club both as a Player and a Manager but results over the past few months have been very disappointing and as with all Managers they are judged by the performance of the team. The Directors felt that John had been given sufficient time this Season to turn things round and unfortunately this has not been the case. Admittedly he was unable to field our strongest team on many occasions due to injuries but when the time came last week to give John a further vote of confidence facts overuled other matters and it was mutually agreed that John would resign.John is one of the most decent guys in football and I am sure that everyone at Links Park will wish him well in the future."

Sheran took over from Kevin Drinkell in October 2000, firstly on a temporary basis and then permanently. In 2001/2002, in Sheran's first full season in charge, the club managed fifth spot, but were still in with a shout of promotion until the last few weeks. However, the recovery didn't last and Montrose had a dismal season 2002/2003 and finished seventh. This season has started even more poorly and managers are judged by results.

John Sheran's reign at Links Park has also been accompanied by a fair amount of controversy. There were the rumours of dressing room bust-ups and the suspicion that good players were being kept on the bench if they didn't get on with the manager, leading to some weird team selections. On the positive side there were also the classic Scottish Cup matches against Arbroath, the Kevin Webster goal against Berwick, the thumping of Dumbarton 5-0 at their own patch, lifting the Forfarshire Cup at Links Park and that amazing 5-4 game against East Stirling in April. It wasn't all bad!

So who will be next to burn their backside on the burning hotseat of the Montrose manager? Henry Hall's been given the job of caretaker manager for the next few matches as the board take their time to select a successor. John Sheran secured the post through that route, so he Henry must be a strong contender to do the same.

The usual suspect, Dave Baikie, has indicated that he would be interested in getting back into Scottish league football, but teletext reports that he wants to be chased.

John Brownlie and Ian McPhee are both managers who have departed other Angus clubs and who may figure in any shortlist.

Who knows? Hopefully it will be someone who can lift Montrose out of the doldrums in which we currently find ourselves and restore a bit of confidence back into the side.

You can vote on who you would like to see as Montrose manager in our poll on the right of this page.