No breaks for Welfare but Cavanagh is proud

Whitehill manager Paul Cavanagh had nothing but praise for his team despite seeing them lose out to Third Division outfit Montrose.

Ten-man Welfare conceded two penalties in the match and Cavanagh admitted: "I am extremely proud of the boys. We were unlucky with both penalty decisions. I thought both penalties were soft and to go down to ten men in the first half left us with a mountain to climb.

"We were under the cosh for the first ten minutes and then we scored a great goal."

Montrose had several early attempts on goal but Whitehill keeper Youseff Bejaoui pulled of some great saves to keep it level. Then a ball was played back to Montrose keeper Daniel Giordano who was put under pressure and his poor clearance fell at the feet of Jordan Hall who, from 30 yards out, placed the ball over the top of Giordano and into the net.

Hall almost scored a second when a quick Gormley free kick allowed him to break away but his shot went just wide.

Aaron Sinclair then broke into the Whitehill box and Ross Allum made a superb blocking challenge to clear the danger. However, match referee Mat Northcroft judged that a foul had been committed and awarded Montrose a penalty. Paul Tosh stepped up and smashed the ball into the net.

Just before the interval there was a goalmouth scramble in the Whitehill box and the ball was smashed against the hand of Alan Cornett and the referee again awarded Montrose a penalty kick. To add to Whitehill's troubles Cornett, who was booked earlier on in the half for a trip, picked up his second caution and was sent packing.

Tosh again stepped up and fired the ball into the back of the net. Then just before the interval Hall again had a chance when he broke away from the Montrose defence but his powerful shot was saved well by Giordano.

Despite Whitehill having a man less they continued to play some attractive football and match Montrose in all areas of the park. Daryl Devlin had a great chance to level it for Whitehill when he was played in by Gormley. Devlin broke away from the Montrose defence and into the box but his shot went over the bar.

Bejaoui was kept busy again in the second half and he pulled off a string of great saves to keep Whitehill's hopes alive.

With Montrose applying lots of pressure it was only a matter of time until they got their third goal of the afternoon and that came when a ball was whipped in and the Whitehill defence didn't clear the danger, allowing Gordon Pope to nip and head the ball into the net from close range.

Cavanagh added: "Even when we went down to ten men we stuck to the job in hand. It was very difficult for us and we had a hard time but we played some good football and in spells we had the majority of the ball. I felt that we matched Montrose all over the park and maybe if we didn't have a man less it would have been a different result. It's difficult to accept as we have had no explanations about the penalties or the sending off. We felt we have been very hard done by and maybe on a different day things would have gone in our favour.

"But for us I need to get the lads back together to express how proud I am of them and we need to move on."

Montrose: Giordano, Hegarty, Cameron, Pope, Crighton, McNally, McCord, Davidson, Tosh, Boyle, Sinclair. Subs: Thomson, Tweed, Watson, Milligan, Wood.

Whitehill: Bejaoui, Cornet, Morrison, Kidd, Adamson, Hall, Allum, McGlashan, Gormley, Kidd, Devlin. Subs: Caddow, Taylor, Lunn, Beattie, Haldane.

Montrose 3

Whitehill Welfare 1