“Montrose born and bred,” is how Graham Christieson introduces himself to me over the phone. By the time we’ve established that he has been going to Links Park for 34 years, I’m hooked. I’m about to get the answer to a question I’ve been dying to ask: when you’ve been in Scotland’s bottom tier since John Major was running the country, just what keeps you going? Whatever it is, it’s to be commended.
If supporters are the lifeblood of the game, Montrose’s dedicated fans could surely set up their own blood bank. The last time the club played a league match outside of Scotland’s lowest tier some of their players weren’t even born, the late George Michael was at No1 in the UK singles chart with Fastlove and the Scottish Parliament was merely words on a sheet of paper that would form part of New Labour’s manifesto.
The date was 4 May 1996 and the fixture in question was a 1-0 defeat at home to Stranraer in the old Second Division. Montrose had been promoted the previous summer but had looked out of their depth from the start. They had to wait three months for their first victory (a 1-0 win at home to Forfar Athletic) and in February they shipped 13 unanswered goals in two matches (7-0 at East Fife in midweek and 6-0 at home to Queen of the South on the Saturday). They played 36 league games, won five of them and were relegated long before season ended. Was there to be a swift return? More than 700 league matches later, they are still trying.
Montrose played East Stirlingshire four times every season for 20 years until the Shire were relegated into the Lowland League in 2016. They have faced Elgin City in every one of the Borough Briggs club’s 17 seasons as part of the SFL and SPFL. The 208-mile round trip to Morayshire has, occasionally, been their local derby fixture.
During this time, they have only looked like winning promotion once, when they reached the play-offs in 2007-08 only to lose to Stranraer in the semi-final. “Apart from that, it’s been slim pickings,” admits Graham. “We are all aware we want out of this division. The manager wants to get us out of the division. It’s just about getting the players on the pitch.”
So what keeps fans going after 21 seasons in Scotland’s basement division – especially when away matches are such a slog? Quite apart from Elgin, trips to Annan and Berwick have become fixtures on the itinerary. “Love of the club,” is Graham’s simple answer. “It’s hard to explain to some people who support a bigger team. When I grew up you had to support Rangers or Celtic, or Aberdeen or Dundee United, who are closer to us geographically. In the early 1980s my dad took me along to Links Park and straight away we just felt like we were part of it.
“There are guys who have been going there for more than 60 years. It’s like a drug: once you are addicted you can’t shake it off. The worst time of the year is the close season. It impacts on your social life, as you spend the rest of the year with the same people going to places like Annan, Berwick or Elgin, and that all stops for a few weeks.”
During their somewhat extended stay in the bottom of Scotland’s four top divisions, Montrose have finished with the wooden spoon three times. The last one of those, in season 2014-15, brought about a frightening scenario. The club did have a route out of the division – downwards, as the first club to face a play-off with the winners of the Highland or Lowland leagues.
Brora Rangers were the opponents, having defeated Edinburgh City for the right to challenge Montrose over two legs for a place in the Third Division in 2015-16. With Brora winning the first leg 1-0 at Dudgeon Park, the Gable Endies were 90 minutes away from bowing out of Scottish league football, which they originally joined in 1923, on their own pitch. A crowd of more than 2,000 squeezed into Links Park to witness a 3-1 victory, with two of the hosts’ goals coming in the final 15 minutes as Montrose survived.
“That was a scary time,” recalls Graham. “The real fear among the supporters was that if we were to drop into the Highland League we might not be able to continue. We would carry on in some guise but for us we wouldn’t feel it as much, as the Highland League, or Lowland League, is not easy to get out of. East Stirlingshire have already found that out after being relegated last season and I feel sorry for their fans. It was a massive fixture for us to continue at the current level after so long. We were just relieved it worked out for us.”
To their own fans, and many others, Montrose have a special place in Scottish football. Even allowing for its artificial surface, Links Park is one of the remaining traditional grounds, where you can stand on terracing, mix with rival fans and generally enjoy the game as you would have done decades ago.
You don’t have to be that old to remember players who wore their colours for many years, such as goalkeeper David Larter and goal-grabber Colin McGlashan. Further back in history, Les Barr and Dennis D’Arcy are still revered by the club. Even during their time in the Third Division, the club has nurtured the likes of Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, John Baird and Martin Boyle, who have gone on to further themselves at higher levels.
Instead of seeing players ascend up the leagues with other clubs, supporters would much rather see the club become upwardly mobile. “It’s very much the aim to win promotion,” says Graham. “We had a meet-the-manager event with Stewart Petrie and his first aim is to make sure the club is stable and not fighting at the wrong end of the table. But the long-term goal is to get out of the bottom league.
“Brechin City are only nine miles away from us and have been up there in League One. That’s where we want to be, if anything just to have different away days. As much as we enjoy the likes of Elgin, Berwick and Annan, and this season, Edinburgh City, after 21 years in the same division it gets a bit boring.
“There’d be a major hangover from celebrating if we did win promotion. There’d be some fear as well, because we don’t want to go up and come straight back down as we did last time. But we’d be in a better league and be able to bring in better players. You never know what can happen, but the main aspect for us would be just to get out of our current league.
“I met Aaron’s dad in Aberdeen recently and he still speaks very highly of the club. Martin came through our youth development system and his gran and granddad have stuck with the supporters’ club even since he left. It’s been a pleasure to see how well he’s done for himself. When younger players go on to bigger and better things it gives you a bit of pride.”
Despite being in the fourth tier for so long, Montrose have enjoyed occasional days in the spotlight. In 2012-13 they took points off Rangers twice, including a 1-1 draw at Ibrox secured when David Gray scored in the 89th minute. It may not even be the most dramatic late goal scored by a player called David Gray against Rangers in recent history, but it meant a lot to the fans.
“When the equaliser went in it was as though we had won the game – even as if we had won the Champions League – going by the celebrations in our corner of Ibrox,” says Graham. “Martin Boyle played in that game for us as well. We still had to play them at Links Park and we thought that, if we could take a point off them at their ground, how good would it be to do that at our place?”
The match finished goalless, leaving the home fans wondering what might have been. “We were really unlucky not to beat them,” says Graham. “We had a perfectly good goal chalked off and, although they won the league that day, we gave them a very good game. Some people say we got the ‘blue coin’ with all the fans who travelled to watch them, but the money we got from that and the TV coverage went towards improving the ground. Many clubs would spend it on players, but we’ve brought the ground up to standard and it will benefit us.”
And the loyal fans remain optimistic that their ground will host third-tier football again, just four UK prime ministers, four Scottish first ministers and three US presidents since Montrose last played outside Scotland’s bottom division.
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