Montrose 3 East Stirlingshire 0

Irn Bru Scottish League Division 3 - Saturday, 30 April 2011 - Links Park

Rather than watch Hearts continue their attempts to cross the finishing line in third place in the SPL in the fashion of a drunk old man staggering home from the pub attempting to eat a fish supper on the way, I opted to go and see my 'other team' - the 'not as mighty as they were last season' East Stirlingshire. The last time I was at Montrose was to see Hearts win a League Cup tie with Walter Kidd scoring a goal in torrential rain - all of a quarter of a century ago. Returning to the Angus town brought back a lot of memories. Montrose as a town hasn't really changed that much but Links Park has since the last time I was there - although if I closed my eyes I could still see Hearts Graham 'Shuggie' Shaw scrambling home a last minute equaliser in a Scottish Cup quarter final tie there in front of 8,000 fans in 1976...

There wasn't quite 8,000 at Links Park on Saturday  - around 350 - and for all that Shire were awful in the first 20 minutes by which time they were three goals down, it was a decent enough game. Montrose's Sean Pierce headed home the opening goal after just seven minutes as the Shire defenders said 'after you Claude' to each other. Three minutes later Shire keeper Michael Andrews brought down Montrose' Nicol who duly converted the penalty kick to double the home side's advantage. After 17 minutes the impressive Pierce finished off a fine move by driving the ball beyond Andrews to make it 3-0 and I feared the worst for the Shire. However, the visitors improved thereafter although it has to be said they never really looked like scoring - a lack of firepower has been the Shire's undoing this season.

Fellow blogger Groanin' Jock is a Montrose aficionado and I'm quite sure he enjoyed Mo's final home game of the season.

Despite the score, I enjoyed the game and a couple of pints in the town's Market Arms afterwards in the company of a Montrose/Aberdeen fan who I hadn't seen for a while. The end of the season, though, can't come quick enough...