Well, it's been a while since the last post here, and a fair bit has happened.
Montrose were shite, got rid of Gettaefuck Hegarty, appointed Sir Stewart of Petrie as manager, romped up the league, lost a playoff, won the league the next season, and never came back down again.
And now, nine seasons on since the last time I bothered to write anything here, Montrose are back to being fairly shite again, albeit at a level above where they were the last time they were shite.
Winker's gone, Midge is gone, and Craig Wighton has decided that he and his body have already had enough of the current version of MoBall and jacked it in completely.
Some of the older players have finally made way for younger blood, but Montrose still sent Andrew Steeves and Terry Masson out in today's starting line-up as part of a team that looks like it's made up of spare parts, while spritely youths Sean Dillon, Graham Webster and Michael Tidser (a player so old he's already had two managerial jobs) all made the bench.
Kerr Waddell was named in the starting XI but was replaced before kick-off by Aidan Quinn, and the cobbled-together back four that lined up in front of Cammy Gill struggled to cope with the pacy Caley Thistle front line of William McKay, Alfie Stewart and Alfie Bavidge.
Quinn plays football with the composure of a sentient IKEA wardrobe that doesn't know where it is or what it should do with the ball. Steeves, once the best left back in League 1, now looks too slow for this level, frequently caught out of position and unable to get back fast enough to cover for his own mistakes. The same can be said of Masson, whose game is reduced to thundering around the middle of the park chasing shadows and committing fouls.
Although Caley started the season on -5 points because the club is a financial basket case, they were level on points with Montrose at kick-off, having won two of their opening three matches, compared with Montrose's solitary point from their match away to Cove a week ago.
Bavidge put the visitors ahead in the fourth minute, slipping a low shot past Gill, who looks like he's truggling for fitness.
Gill's tendency to punch everything that comes close to his goal line led to Caley's second in the 33rd minute, the keeper's attempted clearance bouncing into the net off Calum MacLeod's head.
It was 2-0 going on 5-0 at half time, David Wotherspoon and Bavidge passing up further opportunities as the half drew to a close.
Without Dillon and Waddell, there's a lack of composure in the Montrose defence, balls being hoofed up the park to no-one in particular, or clearances scrambled back out into the danger zone in the middle of the park.
Tidser was the home side's man of the match today for managing to be the least shite Montrose player in the 45 minutes he was afforded on a new pitch so sandy that it sent up little puffs of beach every time someone kicked the ball.
Elsewhere, there are green shoots of quality in the Montrose squad - last year's player of the year, Blair Lyons, remains a threat at all times, and striker Ewan Loudon has the makings of a quality player - but with a chaotic defence, erratic goalkeeping and no-one in midfield putting their foot on the ball and picking a pass (at least until Tidser came off the bench), they're left with little to work with.
Caley didn't look great in the second half, but they didn't have to, as Montrose did little to seriously threaten the two-goal lead.
So here we are, four league games in, with a single point to show for it. Today was the first time I'd seen Montrose this season, and judging them against a Caley side that may well win the league maybe isn't entirely fair.
But unless there's an upturn in results soon, we could be in for a long, hard season.
