By Gary McKenzie
July 20 2004

Friendly. Saturday 17 July 2004, Links Park, Montrose. MONTROSE 2 (Wood (65), Sharp (89) FORFAR ATHLETIC 1 (King (20)) Montrose were back in blue for this game against Angus neighbours, Forfar, at Links Park. The Loons were soundly thumped against St Johnstone in midweek, so it promised to be tight.

Montrose were all over Forfar like a rash, but it was the Loons who opened the scoring in w20 minutes when Barry Donachie made a suicidally short backpass to Butter and King nipped in to curl it past Butter and into his bottom left corner.

Montrose are nothing if not resiliant under Henry Hall, and they dug in. Kerrigan was his usual determined self, but he found himself on the end of some rough treatment by the Forfar midfield. Their defence, however, withstood the many chances the Mo created, with trialist Smith performing better on the right of midfield than he did in the full back role against St Johnstone.

Half time came and we couldn't believe we hadn't scored.

Ironically, Forfar began the second half better than they'd finished the first.However, Montrose still carved out numerous chances and it was no surprise when Kegsy picked up the ball in midfield and ran at the Forfar defence. He curled a sweet ball into the path of the onrunning and onside Martin Wood,who rounded the keeper and slotted home a deserved equaliser.

On 76 minutes, Montrose sent on Hall for trialist, Smith and Budd for Spink.

It was a great match to watch and with only seconds to go, another piece of individual genius led to the winner. Martin Wood ran from the half way line to have his shot saved by the keeper, but it fell to Sharp who put it away for a famous victory.

Montrose thoroughly deserved their win, having taken the game to Forfar from the start.

Teams

Montrose

Butter, Donachie, Ferguson, Stephen, Smith, Kerrigan, Trialist, Spink, Wood, Smart, Sharp

Subs: Hall, Budd, Lindsay, Hankinson

Forfar

Ferrie, Lunan, Florence, Dunn, Forrest, McClune, Sellars, Booth, King, Davidson, Maher

Subs: Lowing, Stein, Tosh,Bremner, Shields, Fraser, Brown