Stewart Petrie conceded that his side were well beaten in Tuesday night’s pre-season defeat to Raith Rovers at Links Park, but was pleased with the response after the break.
That was largely down to a switch to a back four and the introduction of new strike pairing Rory McAllister and Kane Hester – who, according to their manager, “hadn’t trained enough” to start the game.
McAllister reached 300 career goals last season and Petrie this summer moved to make Hester Montrose’s record signing after he hit 29 goals for Elgin City last season.
The prospect of the two linking up for the season ahead is a tantalising one and Montrose fans were given their first example of what they are in for when both were brought off the bench at half-time.
Terrific goal
After being thoroughly outplayed in the opening 45 minutes of the 3-1 loss, McAllister and Hester caused Raith a number of issues in the second half.
“I thought second half our shape helped a lot, we got more pressure on the ball, pushed them back a bit and got in better areas,” the Montrose boss told Courier Sport.
“We scored a terrific goal ourselves. The link-up play with the two strikers was excellent.
McAllister’s goal:
“They’ve played the game a long time, the two of them now – and they’ve always scored goals. So we’re hoping they can bring that to Montrose.”
Later in the game, Rover keeper Kevin Dabrowski had to react to another McAllister chance, again set up by a clever touch from Hester.
Hester’s clever flick:
The Montrose boss is managing his squad through a hectic schedule – with back-to-back games this weekend – and with a high turnover of players this summer.
Managing squad
“The simple fact is that Rory and Kane haven’t trained enough to start the game,” added Petrie.
“We’re trying to look after them and make sure that we get everybody through it. Then we’ve got games Friday and Saturday coming up.
“It’s a case of trying to share the minutes and make sure we’re looking after the boys.
“It’s important that the fitness levels are there are no injuries – and we got that.
“We’ve made more changes this season than we have since I came to the club. So the transition is going to take a bit of time.”
