Ladies close to breaking through the brick wall
Montrose Women boss Craig Feroz is determined his side’s season won’t peter out as history is within their grasp.
Dundee United are the visitors on Sunday in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup, with a place at Hampden up for grabs.
A week later Montrose will head to Rangers in their final SWPL-1 fixture before the split looking to secure a top-six place for the first time.
A 2-1 defeat at home to Partick Thistle at the weekend saw the Glasgow side move to within a point of Montrose.
The visitors went in front after 19 minutes, Imogen Longcake firing in the rebound after Lauren Perry denied Erin Rennie from point-blank range.
Thistle doubled their advantage eight minutes later, Isla Taylor running through to find the corner of the net.
Montrose tried to get back in the game, with Jeni Currie making good saves to deny Kaela McDonald-Nguah and Sophia Martin.
They pulled one back just before half-time, Thistle failed to deal with a Demi Taylor corner and Martin smuggled the ball into the net.
In the second period Montrose came close to equalising, most notably McDonald-Nguah hitting the post, but the away side hung on.
Thistle they will probably be favourites to snatch the top-six berth as they host bottom side Hamilton Academical on February 22.
They will also have an additional week’s rest, while Montrose have to focus on United first.
Feroz told Montrose FC TV: “We’ve come so far, but the difference between an athlete and elite athlete is continuing to perform at that top level.
"I feel that we're at a level where you are just knocking against a brick wall, which is sore.
"We never really looked at top six and the recent match against Hearts just shows you the difference you're going to have to be every week if you're at that level.
"It’s a credit to the players for getting us to this position and we deserve a crack at it, but if we're going to take that leap we need to be ready for it.
"The United game is a big chance to get to Hampden, some of the girls may never get that chance again.
"We need to get over the line or we'll end up with nothing which would be frustrating, so we've got to give ourselves the best possible chance.”