Montrose started with Gill in goal then Quinn, Dillon and Steeves with Williamson playing more of a midfield role alongside Machado, Hannah, Masson and Brown with the latter two in an attacking role to support the front two of Lyons and Hester. Among the subs were new signing Blair McKenzie and a Trialist.

Referee for the day was Alastair Grieve who used his cards regularly during the game. 

Play started slowly and a long ball from Quinn was just too far and went out of play. 

Inverness had a free kick 40 yards out but surprisingly passed the ball backwards and the resultant cross was easily collected by Gill. Play was very much 50/50 with neither side threatening up front but on the 20 minute mark Montrose took the lead from their first real attack. The ball was threaded through to Lyons who in turn put Kane Hester in position and he hit the roof of the net from an acute angle to make it 1-0 to the Mo.

From the restart Machado was yellow carded for a pull back and Dillon did well to spoil the Inverness attack from the free kick.

Inverness were kept at distance by the Montrose defence but hit the outside of the post from a mazy run before the ball was cleared.

Masson was the next to see yellow when he clearly won the ball and the Inverness lad fell over him and was injured. The referee didn’t see it that way and as well as booking Masson he also booked the Montrose Assistant Manager for dissent. 

Another yellow was issued to an Inverness player which made it 3 yellows within 2 minutes. They were in the 38^th and 39^th minutes but referee Grieve was not finished there as another Inverness lad was booked on 40 minutes for a foul on Lyons then in the first minute of first half stoppage time Dillon saw red after receiving a second yellow for a bad tackle.

Montrose therefore started the second half with 10 men with Quinn moving to the centre back position, Steeves moving into the centre back place alongside Quinn with Williamson moving into the right back position and Hannah to left back. Inverness made a change with Strachan on for F. Duffy. From a shot by MacKinnon, Gill had to tip over the bar for a corner which was wasted with Gill collecting it. The second half became continual pressure from Inverness as Montrose had to be careful with so many yellow cards issued they did not want to be reduced even further from the remaining 10 men.

The Mo were defending well with Steeves in commanding form as Inverness were restricted to long shots as otherwise they were stopped by defenders. There was just one which slipped through as a 20 yarder from Adam MacKinnon found the corner of the net to make it 1-1. That it seemed was always going to happen and the rest of the game is hardly worth recording from a Montrose point of view.

The Mo defence was under constant pressure but coping well as Inverness failed to capitalise with the extra man. Indeed on two breakaways Montrose might well have scored themselves. Craig Brown ran right through the centre from his own half but just before he got his shot away he was tackled and on the other occasion Williamson scurried down the right wing but there was nobody else up top to finish it off as all others were doing well to defend.

By that time both Lyons and Hester had been substituted with Maciver-Redwood on along with the Trialist and also Masson and Hannah had been replaced by Shrive and McKenzie to strengthen the defence to maintain the score at 1-1.

The last 15 minutes saw Inverness make more changes and referee Grieve exercised his cards again by booking Andrew Steeves and Craig Smith who had just entered the fray. All together Montrose received 6 yellow cards which also included the Red one and Inverness had two yellow cards. 

A point gained by Montrose but it could well have been all three had they continued their first half form until they were reduced to 10 men.

Report by Steve Doyle

Pic courtesy of ICT

Post Match Reaction https://youtu.be/XZ3qsW010BU?si=-aCi4UlF9-MdQV9y