When Graeme Montgomery took to the field on Saturday against Bournemouth, it marked a first league start for the 21-year-old left winger signed from Wealdstone 13 months ago.
Monty has become something of a cult figure at Victoria Road since his arrival, seen by many supporters as the nearly man in Stilly’s squad. Always the bridesmaid but never the bride, the ex-Wealdstone man had only made a smattering of substitute appearances and the occasional start in the Essex Senior Cup, until now.
It was therefore a bold move to see him in the starting XI at the weekend. Given a dreadful run of results that had seen the Daggers lose 6 of the last 7 league matches, with 4 straight defeats, Stilly clearly believed things needed freshening up.
Never one to shy away from blooding youngsters in the first team, it is perhaps a surprise that we’ve had to wait so long for Monty to be given his chance. Dominic Green was just 18 when he was signed from the Daggers by Peterborough in September 2007.
The left wing berth has been a troublesome position this season. Having never fully recovered from losing the mesmerising Matt Ritchie in the close season, we’ve seen a number of players try to fill the void, most regularly Jon Nurse and Peter Gain.
Neither, however, have the pace required to beat a full-back, and in Nursey’s case there was always a tendency to cut inside and use his favoured right foot than take a chance on his left.
Montgomery’s impact on Saturday was tremendous as he showed a willingness to beat his man, and looked particularly dangerous on the counter attack. A beautifully chipped ball to the forward-bound Peter Gain almost resulted in a great breakaway goal in the second half.
With this impressive display, the inevitable question is, should we have seen Monty start sooner? Only the boss knows. After all, John works with these players day in and day out and sees far more of them than the man on the terrace.
We all have an opinion, with the majority of message board posters being left bemused at his non-inclusion despite a number of impressive cameos in the past 12 months. But it’s one thing doing it for 20 minutes against tired defenders, as opposed to being up for the fight over 90.
What was also encouraging about Saturday was Monty’s linking up with new left-back Damien McCrory signed recently for a five-figure fee from Plymouth Argyle. In truth, we’ve been reeling since losing Scotty to Peterborough in October, and the arrivals of Matt Lockwood and Jamie Day from Colchester and Peterborough respectively, were only ever quick fixes.
The difference from Saturday and the Day/Nurse partnership on the left hand side from a few weeks back is incredible. While many were calling for Monty to be awarded the Man of the Match award at the weekend, McCrory was equally effective, if less noticeable, over the course of the match.
The question on everyone’s lips after this much-needed victory is whether Monty has now done enough to cement his place in the starting line-up for the forthcoming fixtures? With two away games against division heavyweights Rochdale and Aldershot to come, it’s a tough call, but given his unexpected start against high-flying Bournemouth, why not?
For me the key man is McCrory , we had to resolve the LB problem before we could afford the luxury of playing Monty as usualy it looks like JS has got it spot on. The two together look to be the answer to our prayers and feel that Monty must get the nod to start on Saturday.
Stu will be the final part of the jig-saw.
Up the Daggers !!
Stu where are u. :0(
Folly to the rescue !?
[...] Nurse as Graeme Montgomery was allowed to make the first League start of his career. We’ve already documented the partnership he almost immediately forged with Damien McCrory, and it was certainly key as we [...]