Saturday marks exactly five years since Stewart Petrie took charge of bottom of the pile Montrose FC – and he’s still looking to see how far he can take the Angus club.
Since 2016, the 51-year-old has transformed the Links Park side, from scrapping for its SPFL status to fighting for a place in Scotland’s second-tier.
But he is not content with his work at Links Park just yet. He recently added another four years onto his deal with the club.
Always improving
Looking towards 2025, he hopes his side will be pushing forward by competing in the Championship. But he knows full well that will not be a simple task.
“I’d like to think we’d be a bit stronger than we are, either in the Championship or at least pushing towards promotion. But it’s getting harder year-on-year. Clubs are getting better,” he explained.
“Queen’s Park, Airdrie, Falkirk, Cove, Alloa – they are full-time.
“There are other teams coming into the league. Look at Kelty this year, they look like they’re going two win League Two fairly comfortably.
“That’s why we need to keep improving. If we stand still, they are going to pass us by.
“We need to try and find that little edge because things are getting tight now.
“But our main aim is maintaining the League One status. That’s our main goal and once we’ve done that, we’ll look at the next stage.”
Remarkable turnaround
When Petrie took the reins, the club were sitting bottom of League Two. Fast forward to today and the picture is completely different.
The club are still making strides towards to get into the Championship and have, so far, earned their right to be a top-half League One side.
From the outside, some may assume wholesale changes have been made to the squad. But the same bones of the team remain in place from when Petrie took charge.
So what’s the secret to turning a side fighting to maintain their league status to pushing for the Championship in just five years?
“At the time they were bottom, the guys didn’t have the best of luck or didn’t get a good run of games for whatever reason,” said a modest Petrie.
“If you look at the current squad, it’s made up of a good number of the guys that were already at the club.
“It wasn’t like it was a mass turnover of players. The guys have just improved as we’ve gone through the years.
“They are a great bunch to work with, which makes it easy.”
Club loyalty
While some clubs these days change players and managers like the wind, Montrose chairman John Crawford and his board have made loyalty the watchword at Links Park.
A number of players are either in or approaching their testimonial years and having this commitment to the club is a definite advantage to Petrie as the gaffer.
“I think continuity and stability certainly helps,” he said.
“You see with other clubs, if you’re having a mass turnaround of players every other season, it’s very difficult to get that continuity and build the environment that we have at Montrose now.
“There’s no question the friendship that we’ve built up with the board. I’ve got an unbelievable relationship with John now as well.
“It’s great and they see the vision that they see in where we want to get the club to.”
Looking back on his five years, Petrie says the highlight was the 2017/18 title win, not just from a personal point of view but also for what it meant to the fans.
“Any time you’re fortunate enough to be in winning a championship it’s the pinnacle,” he said.
“It’s what you’re there all season for. It’s very hard to eclipse that.
“It was just a fabulous day for the fans. We’re only here part-time as manager and players, that one was for the people who have been supporting the club throughout the years.
“The last time they won the league was in 85, so it was overdue.”
Links to vacant managerial roles
Petrie’s great success in such a short period of time has inevitably brought rumours and links to jobs away from the club.
He has been linked with jobs in full-time football from Ayr United to Dunfermline.
But a move away from Montrose has never tempted him – and he remains fully committed to the club.
“I’ve had a great five years. We’ve done well and [leaving] is something that’s never cropped up,” he said.
“I’m under contract and until John tells me otherwise, solely, my job has been to look after Montrose.
“I couldn’t be happier. It’s a fabulous club to be at, full of great people.
“Until John tells me otherwise, I’ll still be manager of Montrose.”