Montrose gave interim manager Ray Farningham his first win as they ended a five-match losing run in style with a victory over Elgin City.
Jonathan Crawford was the hero for Montrose in 13 minutes, nodding home a Daryl Nicol cross on the back post for his first goal of the season.
Montrose had to thank Argentinian goalkeeper Ramiro Gonzalez for a number of important saves.
He saved from David Gormley when the scoresheet was blank, then followed that with first-half saves from Gormley again and Craig Gunn.
Gonzalez made a second-half stop from Gunn as Elgin never allowed Montrose to relax.
With top-scorer Paul Tosh off to Peterhead on loan, Montrose went with a pacy front two of Martin Boyle and Daryl Nicol and the pair constantly stretched the Elgin defence.
Boyle just failed to connect with a Nicol cross in 28 minutes then, nine minutes later, Boyle was denied by keeper John Calder and Nicol shot wide with his follow-up.CloseCalder saved twice from Boyle and once from Nicol in the second half as Montrose tried to make sure of the points. In stoppage time, sub Sean Pierce twice went close as Montrose finished on the front foot.
Farningham said, “The win was a long time coming, but it was fully deserved. I couldn’t have asked any more from my players as they showed great commitment and their attitude was first class.
“We should have killed the game off at 1-0 but missed two or three chances and we must learn from that.”
The departure of Tosh on loan raised a few eyebrows among the Montrose fans, but Farningham said he was happy to go with youth.
“My two front boys had pace and energy and I wanted to exploit that. I wanted to freshen things up.
“Gonzalez made good saves at the right times. They didn’t create much in the second half, but at 1-0 you are always nervous.”
Elgin boss Ross Jack said, “We missed too many chances in the first half.
“We are not giving up on the play-offs. Winning all of our last six games might get us in the back door, but we will have to play a lot better than we did today.”