Brummo

Listening to BBC Radio Scotland and the pundit was ecstatic at the prospect of having an all full-time Championship. He inflated Falkirk's crowds to 5000-6000, so it seemed that as is par for the course, he was clueless about football in Leagues One and below. It is unsurprising but annoying nonetheless that there is no acknowledgement that part-time clubs can compete with full-time ones. The accepted "wisdom" is that any player who is half decent will want to play full-time football and I get that but it ignores the fact that going full-time may not make sense for everyone. Why shouldn't talented part-time players have the opportunity to play in the Championship if their fitness and skills are good enough? Someone recently said to me something along the lines of the Championship should be full-time clubs and Leagues One and below, part-time. It annoys me that clubs from smaller towns away from big centres of population seem to be discouraged from aspiring to success because they are expected to remain at "their level". It's this kind of negativity which no doubt contributes to the bus loads of glory hunters heading down from smaller towns to watch the ugly sisters rather than support their local team. People point to Brechin's spectacular tail spin as though that were the expected fate of a part-time club in the Championship, when clearly that example is an anomaly rather than being the rule. I am not saying that a part-time club could necessarily maintain a permanent presence in the Championship. That would probably require at least a hybrid of full-time and part-time players. I would however prefer to have a season or two in the Championship or even to be a yo-yo club than to have no higher aspiration than League One. I like to think that we're we to be in a promotion playoff, the Mo would be in it to win it and if we did get promoted, that we would be in a position to strengthen the squad to be able to compete in the Championship. That is all wishful thinking for now but I hope it isn't always going to be the case. In thinking about Brechin's current sorry plight, I am also very thankful that the Mo are in the position they are.

Sorry to discover that City were pipped at the post this year. Absolutely no schadenfreude in seeing such a formerly well run successful club fail to get back into the SPFL League Two playoffs.

Glad we're still in it despite dropping points. Kelty on Saturday is a HUGE game now. Definitely a six pointer since they have crept up the league to become potential playoff contenders. Their result against Falkirk shows how tough things will be. Cove also showed today that they are capable of taking maximum points in their remaining matches, if they get the rub of the green. We don't need to worry about them though. It's in our own hands. Hoping Cammy Gill is back between the sticks by then.

Got the score the wrong way round, sadly for us. I hope Montrose performed better than on Tuesday night. Would hate this season to fizzle out like last year's. Hope the team are capable of shaking themselves down and getting going again for the last couple of games before the playoffs. I never like it when we are looking to other teams to do us a favour but if Alloa can win tonight, I would be happier than I am so far today with both the Dons and the Mo losing.

Don't flatter yourself. Our form was dipping before the Falkirk game. Since then we have had a draw and a loss, so you seem to be misinformed.

That could have gone better! Congratulations Edinburgh City.

Please can we have less wind this time round? Hoping we field a strong team and play well enough to keep on pushing for the playoff spots.

Police car at LIDL after the game. Blue light voucher discount on bakery goods?

I hadn't thought of having to play into blinding sunshine as being a factor with east-west oriented grounds. I would have thought that in Scotland having prevailing winds would be more of a factor than sunshine, especially in grounds which are less sheltered from the elements.

Yes, I noticed there was a pie thing going on with some of the Binos. It's always good to have that silver-lining to draw comfort (eating) from.

Thanks. I still wonder if wind swirling around the pitch would have been any less of a factor if the ground wasn't orientated north-south? At least if it east-west, it would favour teams either half.

Shocking for away fans. Getting soaked in the back row of the stand. The wind ruined the game. It became an utter farce towards the end. I am disappointed we didn't nick three points. Alloa were threatening at times. Just glad we weren't the victims of a freak gust of wind blowing the ball past our keeper. Mind you if we'd won courtesy of the "hand of God", I wouldn't have complained. Definitely got my full dose of fresh air (the wind wasn't blowing from Grangemouth, I hope). I did wonder why the pitch was orientated the way it was and it was difficult to work out which side benefitted from the wind direction in which half. It all seemed so random. I think probably Montrose had the best of it in the second half. No veggie friendly food at the Away side pie van. The warm water I had to drink had only a fleeting acquaintance with a tea bag, so next time I will opt for what will undoubtedly be equally poor instant coffee. At full time I sampled a macaroni cheese pie from the home side pie shop, as I needed sustenance to get me back down the road. It had been microwaved rather than grilled, so again, not great. I am calling for an end to pie shop apartheid in every ground. "No!" to away fans having to pay through the nose for inferior choice and quality fare. It was the same at Annan. End this discrimination now.

No. To be fair it was marginally shorter than the match.

Was the wind really that bad or was the ref. just worried his toupee would come unstuck and fancied getting home early?

We have to do things the hard way, don't we? I can only think of the Storm Babet game being off at Cove due to bad weather although it would also have likely been the same had it been a home tie. Have there been any games postponed because of bad weather at Links Park this season? We had to play Falkirk midweek because they had a cup game and now we have another midweek because of today's abandonment. Added to that, we had to play Falkirk when they were on fire after winning the league. Thankfully Falkirk didn't let Cove back into the game as looked a possibility after the latter pulled a goal back. Alloa's free scoring against Stirling shows they mean business. Obviously disappointed we never had the chance to get back on the horse after last Saturday's nightmare. When is the game rescheduled for? Let's hope the Mo can get their MOjo back in time for their next match as it is an absolute six pointer. I seem to remember us being absolutely blown away (not in the Edinburgh City sense) last season at Alloa. Hoping for a far better outcome this time.

Thanks Falkirk.

Falkirk looking almost lackadaisical compared to last week. Really disappointing from a Mo perspective. Hoping they sharpen up big time in the second half.

I really wasn't wanting to resurrect the spectre of the notorious former Scotland and Glasgow United player. That really was a sorry episode for Scottish football from start to finish. The thing that left those of us who watched him play for Clyde against our team for several seasons, scratching our heads, was why things only blew up when he signed for Raith Rovers? Why was it considered acceptable until a celebrity crime fiction writer gets involved because it's her club which is being tarnished through its association with him? A shambles from which nobody emerges with any credit other than the victim who had the courage to seek justice.

Will the wounded beast react.... or not?

Here's my take, with some working for my answers... According to an away team Changing Room eavesdropper related to me by an inside source, the noise from the Falkirk team when they learned they had won the league was considerable. Having learned they were champions, McGlynn urges them to "play like champions". They are totally pumped up for the start of the match. The adrenaline is in full flow. They emerge to fans who totally dominate the ground in ecstatic mood. The TV cameras and crew are there to further emphasise this victory before a ball has even been kicked. This is show time! With a goal after 4 minutes, Falkirk get off to a flying start and but for a sublime moment from Machado and Hester, which proves to be the only glitch, the Falkirk team dominate the game. When the teams emerge after the halftime break, both know the next goal is crucial. When Falkirk score on 47 minutes, the writing is on the wall, writing that two minutes later is made bold, underlined and maximum sized font, when Falkirk get their fifth. After that, for the Mo, it's all about trying to avoid a total collapse, as Falkirk keep possession and eliminate any threat Montrose might have posed, scoring two further goals against what has become a run ragged, makeshift team, in which youngsters are brought off the bench, to gain experience, rather than have any prospect of turning things round. The early evening kickoff game has from a Mo perspective morphed into a nightmare. Instead of being the game when we rained on Falkirk's parade. We've become like the Christians thrown to the lions at the Coliseum, meekly devoured in an all too public spectacle courtesy of BBC Alba. (Watchable for a year on BBC iPlayer for any Mosochists out there.) In a flashback to Easter Road in the 0-9 humiliation by the Hibees or the more recent nightmare playoff against Airdrie, I'm channeling Renton's words about "being Scottish" and applying them to "being a Montrose fan". But here's the thing despite the rank horror of everything about Saturday for Montrose, I clutch onto these straws. We could not have picked a worse game to play Falkirk. The circumstances aligning contributed to it being a perfect storm. Up until our last three games, we had been on a good run. We are in the position we are in because of decent performances over the season so far. A decent team doesn't become a poor team overnight on the basis of one absolute nightmare game - even if it was the total opposite of what we were hoping for. A good manager doesn't lose his way overnight either. Petrie put this team together. He has been accused of being "too loyal" and keeping players beyond their "use by" date but I cannot bring myself to believe that someone who has put this team together, which has been punching above its weight since it got promoted, is simply not capable of bringing in new players who will move things forward when existing players are no longer competitive. Do SP and Ross between them really not have the tools to do that? I agree that if we play like we have been in our last three games, a playoff place would be wasted on us. As SP said in his post match interview on Saturday, our season should not be defined by our matches against Falkirk. We have beaten Cove and Alloa and have matched Hamilton. Much depends on how the ninth placed team in the Championship ends the season and how much fight is left in them, come the playoffs. We were so close to seeing off Morton a few seasons back. It is a tall order but who is to say, we can't go further this time round? We will definitely need a really big rebuild and reinforcement if the Championship dream were to become a reality. But before that lads, get a result against Edinburgh, please.

From a Montrose fan's perspective, for me this evening was down there with the 0-9 roasting I witnessed at Easter Road back in the early noughties! Don't get me wrong, Falkirk were decent but I never thought we would fold like we did in the second half. Losing two goals within five minutes of the restart was a horror show. While it wouldn't be fair to lay the blame solely on Cammy Gill, he did not have a good game. At least Hester did score a decent goal following a sublime pass from Machado. If he hadn't, we would be on negative goal difference. A meagre crumb of comfort really. A sore one.

Well from a Montrose perspective, that could have gone better. Fair play to Falkirk, they went for it from the get go. At 1-3 at half-time, I still had some hope but when the fifth goal went in on 49 minutes, it was just about containment. Even that proved a forlorn hope as rampant Falkirk weren't going to ease off. The really disappointing consequence is losing a number of soft goals and fourth place in the process. We needed to be at our very best to be at the races tonight: we weren't and the scoreline reflects that. Well done Falkirk. Worthy Champions. I hope the Mo can shake this off and get their playoff push back on track.

Let's just sit back and hopefully enjoy it! Congratulations to Falkirk for winning the league.

What it says on website. Try giving them a call tomorrow morning. If no luck, then message me and I will try to help. SUPPORTERS WITH ACCESSIBLE NEEDS Any supporter who requires an accessible parking space, a wheelchair space or a seat which involves minimal steps should contact office@montrosefc.co.uk or phone 01674 673200 during office hours and a member of club staff will be pleased to help.