The pre-season build-up for Angus neighbours Brechin City and Montrose continued on Saturday at Glebe Park where the hosts came out on top.
The only goal of the game came just a couple of minutes before half-time when midfielder Ryan Ferguson took advantage of a great pass from trialist Liam Buchanan to fire the ball into the bottom corner.
It was a good workout for both sides and both managers fielded trialists as they assess their squad’s capabilities before the season proper gets under way a week on Saturday.
City boss Ray McKinnon said: “ I was fairly pleased with the workout.
“We played a number of trialists and made a lot of changes during the game, which probably didn’t help the tempo of the match, but overall I’m happy with the way things are shaping up.
“We played a lot of good football and created some good chances, but at this stage of the season it’s still all about building up fitness levels.
“I was pleased with the way our trialists shaped up and we’ll continue assessing their capabilities over the next couple of weeks but we have to make sure that anyone we do sign is going to improve the squad.”
Montrose counterpart George Shields was equally pleased with the way his players performed and has offered contracts to three players who have been training with the club.
“I thought that the boys did really well today and it was a really good workout for our first game back,” said Shields.
“We’ve offered contracts to two of the players who took part today, Stephen O’Neill and Stephen Day, and also to full-back Ross Graham.
“I said when I took over that we’d try and retain the nucleus of the squad and the three lads we’ve offered contracts to will definitely improve the team.”