Montrose boss did not envisage another dramatic day against Rangers

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Montrose boss did not envisage another dramatic day against Rangers

 

Friday 21st September 2012

 

Montrose travel to Ibrox on Sunday and their Manager, Stuart Garden, will be able to use a hat-trick of wins over Rangers in his coaching career to tell his players anything is possible.

 

Whilst anything may well be possible, Garden is honest enough to admit that he never saw the time coming when he would be looking to win points from the Light Blues as he explained: â??Sunday is not a day I envisaged. I never thought it would happen despite all the talk during the summer over what was going on at Rangers but I have to admit that it will be a great occasion for us, as it is for all the clubs in the Third Division.â?

 

As for getting a positive result at Ibrox, Garden said: â??We will need a bit of luck and hopefully, any pressure that Rangers put on us will result in shots against the bar and post whilst we score with any chances we have.

 

â??It is a huge game for us and one we are looking forward to. They got a bit of criticism for the goalless draw at Annan last weekend and The Ramsdens Cup result against Queen of the South but they have been very strong at Ibrox in the League this season. We know this will be a tough afternoon for us.â?

 

Garden added: â??We are the same as the other Third Division sides in that if you are going to do anything then you have to be brave.

 

â??I am sure we will and we have some players with decent experience in our ranks like Jamie Winter, who played against Rangers when he was with Aberdeen, and we also have Leighton McIntosh in on loan from Dundee. He has played in the First Division and Lloyd Young is a good professional who has played in a lot of games as well.â?

 

The 40-year-old was the Goalkeeping Coach at Inverness Caledonian Thistle when they got the better of Rangers on a hat-trick of occasions and each game was a dramatic one for different reasons.

 

Win number one came in October, 2006 when Graham Bayne scored the only goal of the game to give the Highlanders a 1-0 win at Ibrox and Garden remembers a cold wind beginning to blow from the stands in that game.

 

He explained: â??Paul le Guen was in charge and he brought in Lionel Letizi for Allan McGregor, which was not too popular a move with the fans. Our goal came from a mistake from Lionel and you could feel the pressure from the 50,000 fans beginning to be cranked up on the Manager at the end of the game.â?

 

A second win two months later at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium helped Le Guen and Rangers come to a parting of the ways with Garden saying: â??We were behind in that game but came back and won it 2-1 with a last minute goal from John Rankin. It was a great day for Inverness but within a week, Paul le Guen was gone.â?

 

The third success over Rangers came in March, 2009 when an Inverness side battling against relegation defeated a Rangers side fighting for the title 1-0 thanks to a last minute penalty from Ian Black, who of course, will be up against Gardenâ??s side this weekend as an Ibrox player.

 

Unfortunately for Inverness, that win was not enough to save them from the drop and fortunately for Rangers, it was not damaging enough to stop them winning the SPL title that season. And, unfortunately for Garden, the clubâ??s demotion was to be an end to his time at Inverness as he was released due to cost cutting measures as Caley Thistle prepared for life in the First Division.

 

Gardenâ??s departure was to prove pivotal in his appointment as the Manager at Links Park although his journey to the Montrose hot seat began almost 30 years ago when he was one of a burgeoning talent in the youth system at Dundee United.

 

â??I was there from the age of 11 as a â??Sâ?? form signing and then spent five or six years as a full-timer,â? said Garden before adding, â??There were a lot of talented boys around at that time with Christian Dailly, Gary Bollan, Alex Clelland, Ray McKinnon and Duncan Ferguson all coming through at that time.

 

â??I was always a goalkeeper although I am not sure why I first went in goals.â?

 

Unfortunately for Garden, unlike the youngsters he grew up with, he never made it into first team or even Scotland action and he said: â??I made the bench countless of times when I was at Tannadice but I never got any game time. Jim McLean was the first Manager I worked with and everyone knows what life was like under Jim. Ivan Golac then came in and after that, Billy Kirkwood was appointed.

 

â??Ivan was a lot more laid back than Jim and took things a bit easier but he had success with his methods as well.â?

 

Success for Golac and United came in the 1994 Scottish Cup Final with Garden, a long time United fan, enjoying their 1-0 success over Rangers as much as anyone as he explained: â??I grew up as a United supporter and I was with the club as a player when we won at Hampden. I had undergone an operation on my shoulder that kept me out for a good part of that season but I was at that game. It was a great day.

 

â??Craig Brewster scored the winning goal and I was re-united with him up at Inverness where he was the Manager. I still speak to him once a month and he is enjoying life down at Crawley Town.â?

 

The following season, Garden decided to head to Brechin and start playing football regularly and he was amongst a group of senior professionals who helped his education as he explained: â??John Young was the Manager who took me there and I enjoyed a good time in my four seasons at Glebe Park.

 

"There were some very experienced players with Harry Cairney, Bobby Brown, Frankie Conway and Sandy Ross and we were a right good side. We got one promotion and stayed in the Second Division for a couple of years before slipping back down again.�

 

Garden then moved on to Forfar where he was to enjoy another promotion to the Second Division in season 1999/2000 when the SFL had to invite another two new clubs into membership when the SPL was increased to 12 clubs as part of the Settlement Agreement between the SFL and the SPL.

 

The shot-stopper said: â??I was there for two years and they were a good club and we had a decent team. Stevie Milne came in on loan from Dundee and scored a barrow-load of goals to help us get promoted.â?

 

The oldest professional club in the world was Gardenâ??s next step as he moved down south to become the goalkeeper at Notts County with the move being arranged by their then Scottish Manager, Jocky Scott, who happens to be Gardenâ??s father-in-law.

 

Garden said: â??Jocky took me down there but I ended up staying a lot longer than him. He was only there for a few months whereas I stayed for three seasons. It was a very good club to be at especially as I was a full-timer again.

 

â??It was a great experience especially as they have the potential to be a really big club but there always seemed to be money problems and having owners in America did not seem to work too well either. I had the option to stay in the summer of 2004 but I decided to come back to Scotland.â?

 

The goalkeeper moved back to the north of the country where he signed for Ross County and he took his first steps into coaching as well as being a player under the guidance of Alex Smith and Jimmy Bone.

 

The Dingwall club reached the Challenge Cup Final within a few months of Garden joining them and their 2-1 defeat from Falkirk still rankles with Garden saying: â??We should have won that Final. We had good players with future Scotland midfielders Don Cowie and Charlie Adam involved as well as John Rankin, who is well established now in the SPL and is currently playing with my former club, Dundee United.

 

â??We were leading one nil and all over them but then Neil Scally hit a wonder goal from nowhere that let them back into things. They scored again but we should have won that Cup Final.â?

 

Garden was with County until the summer of 2006 with an injury putting paid to his days there as he explained: â??I got injured in the February and never played again. I was still coaching but when my contract was up, it was time to move on.â?

 

He didnâ??t move far with Garden saying: â??I went to work at Inverness and we had those three wins over Rangers during that spell. I worked firstly with Charlie Christie and Donald Park before Craig Brewster and Malky Thomson came in. I was still there when Terry Butcher and Maurice Malpas took charge and all my time was spent in the SPL until that relegation in season 2008/09.

 

â??As part of the cost cutting that went on after that relegation, I left the club and moved to Celtic as Head of their Goalkeeping Academy from Under-10 to Under-19 age levels. It was from there that Steven Tweed took me to Montrose a couple of years ago as their First Team Coach.â?

 

Tweed resigned due to work commitments in March, 2011 and his assistant, Ray Farningham, took over with Garden stepping up to work as his Assistant Manager.

 

The mini-production line carried on this summer when Farningham returned to Dundee as Barry Smithâ??s assistant and Garden stepped up to become the Manager at Links Park.

 

â??The club has had a period of stability through this approach as things have passed from Steven to Ray to me,â? said Garden before adding, â??When I spoke to the Chairman about the job, it was something both him and I were after for the players. They knew me and when it came to me recruiting my assistant, I wanted someone who would give us a good bit of experience about the place.â?

 

He could not have chosen someone with more experience as Garden recruited former Dundee, Dundee United and Scotland defender Lee Wilkie to be his partner and he said: â??I wanted someone who knew the game, who was ambitious and who was well respected. We have that in Lee.â?

 

The new managerial duo started the season with a Ramsdens Cup win over Inverurie Loco Works and a Scottish Communities League Cup success over First Division Cowdenbeath however, a League win had remained elusive until last Saturday when Berwick Rangers were defeated 3-1.

 

Two goal leads had been lost to both Clyde and Queenâ??s Park and Garden was delighted to finally get over the finishing line at the weekend as he said: â??It was good to get that win after a couple of false starts. We had a decent performance at Peterhead where Rory McAllister was the only difference between the sides and also a goalless draw with Annan.

 

â??We played well against Berwick last Saturday and were two goals up but lost one right on half-time. That can make you nervous but we went out and got the third which was great.â?

 

Garden concluded by saying: â??It is good to be heading to the small matter of playing at Ibrox against Rangers with a win behind us.â?

 

http://www.scottishfootballleague.com/news/article/montrose-boss-did-not-envisage-another-dramatic-day-against-rangers/

[Zappa 0]

The SFL really put the SPL to shame with the standard of their news and pre/post match articles! This is a cracker!

[forlanssister 3,114]

The SFL really put the SPL to shame with the standard of their news and pre/post match articles! This is a cracker!

 

The SFL put the SPL to shame period.

[pete 2,499]

The SFL put the SPL to shame period.

 

Totally agree!

[Zappa 0]

The SFL put the SPL to shame period.

 

They certainly do and the standard of football played in their leagues is very good too. These wee clubs have tiny fan bases and virtually no sponsorship, so they're playing for the love of football.

 

That's something I've been impressed with; that the SFL actually seems to have a lot of people playing and working at the clubs (as well as also having people working behind the scenes at the SFL itself) for the love football rather than money.

 

I hope the SFA & SPL don't manage to corrupt the SFL with their ill-planned reconstruction brain farts.

[54andcounting 0]

We Are Rangers Super Rangers No One Likes Us We Don't Care......I'd put that song at the top of my all time favourite Rangers Songs.

 

Any money that'll be everyone's fav in a couple of years from now when we ditch the SFL for the spl?

[Gribz 966]

They certainly do and the standard of football played in their leagues is very good too. These wee clubs have tiny fan bases and virtually no sponsorship, so they're playing for the love of football.

 

That's something I've been impressed with; that the SFL actually seems to have a lot of people playing and working at the clubs (as well as also having people working behind the scenes at the SFL itself) for the love football rather than money.

 

I hope the SFA & SPL don't manage to corrupt the SFL with their ill-planned reconstruction brain farts.

 

You've redeemed yourself

 

The SFL has been far more organised and professional and if I was in the SFL Id be looking at the situation as if I held all the cards. The SFL now has a half of the 'bread winners' in the country and that member is the biggest club in the country. Also have more member clubs and comparing the standard and size of some teams in Div 1 they are equal to most SPL clubs.

 

Id be telling the SPL to jog on unless the SFL call the shots.

 

The SPL got greedy and buried the SFL and the Scottish game in the 90s this is karma.

 

What is refreshing is there is no hatred in this league. We are being welcomed at every town and ground we go to and we are welcoming teams and fans who enjoy the day trip to Ibrox. The hatred is still coming from the media and SPL clubs who seem bitter about out exsistance.

[54andcounting 0]

Whoa! soon we'll be prancing about in pink outfits and all things nice shouting we are the people.