Montrose 1 East Fife 3

Montrose's disappointing run of form continued with a heavy defeat at home to East Fife in which Terry Masson was sent off.

In a scrappy encounter played in blustery conditions, there was little to separate the sides in the first half. East Fife’s Ryan Wallace headed wide from a Pat Slattery cross, and Masson blasted over from Martin Rennie’s cushioned header from Iain Campbell’s cross.

Wallace had a weak shot held by Montrose goalkeeper Aaron Lennox, and Graham Webster had a shot blocked at the other end from a Blair Lyons lay-off.
Scott Agnew came close to opening the scoring in the 29th minute when his cross/shot flew across Lennox’s goal and out for a goal kick.

East Fife broke the deadlock in the 41st minute when AARON DUNSMORE shrugged off a challenge from Iain Campbell and smashed a shot into the bottom corner.
The first real incident of note in the second half saw Montrose equalise. Webster’s free kick from wide on the right bounced in the box before BLAIR LYONS hammered the ball past Jordan Hart.

But no sooner had Montrose restored parity than they were reduced to 10 men, Masson shown a straight red card for a heavy challenge on Dunsmore in the middle of the park.

From that point on, most of the traffic was one way, as East Fife sought to capitalise on their numerical advantage.

Agnew fired over from 30 yards out and Wallace had a shot deflected wide, before AARON DUNSMORE scored his second of the match, collecting the ball on the edge of the box before turning inside and shooting over Lennox.

The Fifers continued to press forwards, Agnew having a shot parried and held by Lennox, Wallace having a shot well saved, Danny Denholm being denied by Lennox when clean through, and Agnew again shooting over from the edge of the box.
They finally found a third goal with six minutes to go, RYAN WALLACE controlling and shooting home.

Mark Rae

Team Lineups & Stats

Ladbrokes SPFL
League 1

Saturday 14th September 2019

21	Aaron Lennox	21	Jordan Hart
7	Graham Webster	4	Stewart Murdoch
3	Andrew Steeves	5	Ross Dunlop
14	Seán Dillon	3	Chris Higgins
5	Kerr Waddell	8	Pat Slattery (s69)
6	Terry Masson	2	Aaron Dunsmore
4	Matty Allan	16	Ross Davidson
22	Cammy Ballantyne (s73)	11	Scott Agnew (c)
9	Martin Rennie (s60)	15	Anton Dowds (s89)
20	Blair Lyons	9	Ryan Wallace
18	Iain Campbel (c) (s73)	14	Liam Watt (s69)
8	Paul Watson (s60)	6	Craig Watson
11	Lewis Milne (s73)	18	Daniel Church (s69)
19	Liam Callaghan	12	Lewis Hunter
16	Craig Johnston (s73)	10	Jamie Allan (s89)
23	Joel MacBeath	7	Danny Denholm (s69)
15	Ross Campbell	1	Brett Long
1	Allan Fleming

Referee:
Greg Aitken

Assistant Referees:
Anthony Cooper, Gary Train

Goalscorers:
Montrose - Blair Lyons (53)
East Fife - Aaron Dunsmore (41, 68), Ryan Wallace (84)

Yellow Cards:
East Fife - Patrick Slattery (36), Ross Dunlop (63)

Red Cards:
Montrose - Terry Masson (54)

Attendance:
561