Murray Thomson’s chat with his local postman drifted to the topic of football.
He said: “My postie comes from Montrose and, during our chat, he told me that Montrose took Rangers to three games some years ago.
“I guess it was probably in the cup, with the third game at a neutral venue.
“I appreciate you may already have covered this.”
I haven’t covered this in the past because it seems it didn’t happened.
I certainly couldn’t remember any such ties taking place and research couldn’t unearth any trace of the Gable Endies taking on the Light Blues three times in one cup-tie.
On Montrose’s online website, there is no mention of games against Rangers.
However, for definite confirmation, I got in touch with Forbes Inglis.
Forbes is a massive Montrose fan, and knows as much as anyone about the history of the Angus club.
This, of course, is in addition to being a journalist and author of note.
He, too, confirmed Montrose and Rangers have never met in a cup-tie which went to three games. Agreeing with me, he suggested what the postman may be thinking of was the trio of ties against Hearts in season 1977-78.
In that season, three epic games against Hearts in the Scottish Cup had Montrose dreaming of winning silverware.
The first game at Links Park ended in a 2-2 draw after the Gable Endies had twice been in the lead, first through a goal from Malcolm Lowe and then another from Ian Stewart.
The team that day was — Gorman, Barr, Markland (Walker), McNicoll, D’Arcy, Cant, Lowe, Stewart, Livingstone, Johnston and Millar. Sub not used — Guthrie.
In the Tynecastle replay, a goal from Harry Johnston and then a Les Barr penalty saw the Gable Endies take a 2-0 lead before Shaw and Gibson scored for Hearts to level the tie.
After some wrangling about neutral venues, the third game took place at Muirton Park, then the home of St Johnstone.
Jimmy Cant opened the scoring for Montrose, before Shaw, who had scored in the two previous games, netted again to level matters.
With seconds of normal time to go, Dave McNicoll hit the woodwork with a shot fit to win any game.
Callachan finally dashed the Montrose hopes with the winner in the 109th minute — the only time the Edinburgh side had been in the lead over the three games.
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