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Brora Rangers v Montrose: “Most important” game of Paul Hegarty’s career

Paul Hegarty know how important today's game is to town of Montrose
Paul Hegarty know how important today's game is to town of Montrose

Montrose manager Paul Hegarty has seen it all during his long and illustrious playing career with Dundee United and Scotland.

But he admits today’s pyramid play-off first-leg at Brora Rangers, and next weekend’s second-leg at Links Park have raised the bar.

Hegarty, who only took the Montrose reigns in the middle of February, is in new territory and he regards his club’s next two games as the most important in their history.

He said: “Certainly on the management stakes these two games against Brora are the most important I’ve been involved in.

Our live blog will bring you updates from the game

“I’ve been speaking to the press over the last two or three weeks about this, this is a huge moment for the town of Montrose itself, obviously for all the supporters and the club itself, as Montrose Football Club have been part of the Scottish League from day one, and the last thing I want to do is see them go elsewhere.

“That’s certainly not what I would like to see happening.

“It is vitally important that we stay up and then try to build for the future, but it is going to be a difficult game as Davie Kirkwood and his squad have done brilliantly this year.

“They have won the Highland League at a canter with four or five weeks still to go, they have scored numerous goals and went through the entire campaign unbeaten.

“It really is going to be a hard game for ourselves.”

However, Hegarty is heartened by his side’s late-season run of form by winning three games on the spin before last weekend’s 4-3 reverse at Annan Athletic, when he added: “The players have improved but as a management team we are reaching for the moon.

“Sometimes you can’t reach it, but if you get anywhere near and get a performance like the ones we put in against Arbroath, Elgin City and East Stirling, we would be delighted, and hopefully that could help us to stay in the league.

“What I will say is that Davie Kirkwood’s team are very positive and extremely experienced with players such as Grant Munro, Zander Sutherland and Steven Mackay, we are expecting a hard game and I’m sure it will be.

“We had one or two injuries from the Annan game and some didn’t train on Tuesday as they were trying to get over their injuries, but we had a full complement of players at training last night.

“We are heading up to stay overnight in Inverness. We have prepared properly for this.

“We have had them watched on three occasions and the reports that we have had back say they are a very good side.”