Montrose boss Stewart Petrie called on his players to bounce back from defeat at home to Elgin as the Borough Briggs side ended his four-game unbeaten run since taking over the Links Park hot seat.
“Elgin are a good side, but if you give a team two goals of a start you are always going to be in difficulty,” he said.
“We battled away, but created nothing clear-cut. We looked a bit lethargic at times, and that was perhaps due to the effort put in against Arbroath on Monday.”
Montrose made a bright start but Elgin opened the scoring on 29 minutes. Montrose gave the ball away, allowing Shane Sutherland to race clear. His low cross was forced over the line by Chris Dodd.
On 40 minutes the defence failed to deal with a long ball. Sutherland made space and fired home via the post.
Montrose pressed in the second half, forcing a string of corners, but Gregor Anderson and Graham Webster failed to trouble the keeper with headers.
Elgin wrapped things up with a third goal three minutes from time. Craig Gunn broke on the right and his cross was slotted home by Sutherland.
* The Gable Endies have moved to extend the loan of Dundee United defender Cammy Ballantyne until the end of the season.
The youngster arrived on a half-season loan in August and had spells in and out of the team under previous boss Paul Hegarty.
Montrose also confirmed that defender Kyle Willox has gone out on loan to Highland League outfit Deveronvale FC until the end of the season following the completion of his recent loan spell with Inverurie Loco Works.
