Season 2011/2012: Match 13: Montrose 1 Stranraer 3 (Irn-Bru Division Three)

Today I suffered from what I believe today's youth refer to as an "epic fail", arriving at Links Park eight minutes after kick-off, therefore missing Montrose's second-minute goal.

That did mean that I saw all three Stranraer strikes, an abject refereeing performance from Barry Cook and Montrose squander a host of chances.

I also burst the zip on my jacket beyond repair and almost dissolved my tongue with a cup of the heated industrial lubricant marketed in Scotland under the brand name Bovril.

And weirdly, this wasn't the worst day I've ever had at the football. Montrose played well, and but for the afore-mentioned poor finishing and third world refereeing, they could have won by a comfortable margin.

There were no complaints with the Stranraer goals, aside from lax defending for the first. Two of them went in courtesy of deflections, but Sandy Wood otherwise had a good game in goal.

It's not often we say this, but Martin Boyle was the main culprit in Montrose's failure to win, missing three gilt-edged chances. The young striker deserves praise for being in goalscoring positions in the first place, but when faced with open goals on two occasions, he hit the post with one effort and slammed the ball into the side netting with the second. He also had a half volley brilliantly saved by Ryan Marshall and slammed a volley wide of the post near the end of the match.

Referee C(r)ook must be from Ayrshire, as every decision went in favour of the visitors. A Scott Johnston goal was disallowed for an imaginary foul in the build-up, he ignored Stranraer's constant fouling and failed to send Grant Gallagher off for a brutal elbow-led assault on Terry Masson's face.

So I now haven't seen a Montrose win since October 22. And yet I still feel more positive about the way things are going than I did a year ago. The team generally look more comfortable on the park than in recent seasons, and but for a bit of bad luck would have won today.

Man of the Match: Martin Boyle was a constant threat to the Stranraer defence today, but passed up far too many chances. Scott Johnston didn't get enough time on the ball to make a difference, and the defence was a bit too haphazard to be considered as potential men of the match (and Dougie Cameron appeared to be sporting stubble that suggested "homeless man living under a bridge" more than "Bruce Willis at his Die Hard peak"). For me, the key performer was Terry Masson, solid and reliable in midfield, snapping into challenges, pushing for goals and ripping Jonathan "Beckenbauer" Smart a new one for dicking about at the back instead of doing what he's paid to and getting rid of the ball.