Montrose goalkeeper Aaron Lennox is set to be side lined after picking up an injury in a contentious offside incident against Cove Rangers.
The Aussie shot stopper had to be replaced deep into first-half stoppage time at Balmoral Park following a “frustrating” offside call.
Lennox ripped his hamstring when clearing the ball, despite Cove attacker Rory McAllister being in an offside position.
The officials gave a late decision, but by then the damage was done as the 28-year-old had raced from his line.
‘Frustrating rule’
Lennox now faces four to six weeks out injured and Montrose boss Stewart Petrie feels it could have been avoided.
“He has a tear in his hamstring,” he told Courier Sport.
“We’ll now gauge how bad that is. The initial reaction from Scotty [Shepherd, Montrose physio] was four to six weeks.
“We’ll know more later this week when it settles down.
“It’s just an annoying one the way the offside rule works. Rory is offside but runs through and the linesman can’t flag until somebody touches it.
“It’s a frustrating rule and it’s nothing to do with the linesman, it’s not his fault. He’s just going by what the rules are but it has cost us a goalkeeper now for four to six weeks.
“We’re fortunate that we have Alan [Flemming] as back up and he’ll go in for now. But it is a frustrating one because Aaron has been outstanding and was a massive part of our unbeaten run.”
Petrie takes the blame
The Gable Endies’ 14-game unbeaten league run came to a halt on Saturday with the 1-0 defeat to Paul Hartley’s side.
The result meant Montrose dropped to third spot, ten points behind the league leaders.
Petrie said the result was on him.
“We changed the shape of the team for the start and it didn’t work for us and that’s my responsibility,” he said.
“We thought we’d try and surprise Cove and play something different to see if we could get in behind them – but the game plan didn’t work.”
