Montrose striker Paul Tosh will line up against his home town team this Saturday when the Gable Endies host Arbroath and despite having pulled on a maroon jersey on four separate occasions, the 36-year-old is prepared for the cold shoulder from his former fans.
Tosh joked, “I am prepared for a bit of a frosty reception. Mind you, sometimes I even got that when I played for Arbroath!”
The frontman, who now combines playing with a coaching role, was born and raised in the historic town and played for Arbroath Lads Club until he was 18 when he got the call to join the Red Lichties.
It was a proud day with Tosh saying, “It was great being signed by your local team. I had grown up watching them play and it was brilliant to become a signed player.
“I was young and just learning my trade and in my second season, 1992/93, we had a great run in the Scottish Cup under Danny McGrain.
“My form at that time there earned me a move to Dundee and full-time football.”
The cup run, which ended with a 3-0 loss to Rangers at home, had locals sporting black beards in a homage to McGrain and produced Tosh’s favourite moments as an Arbroath player.
He explained, “In the replay, we had to win to get us through to face Rangers and I scored two goals against East Fife in a 4-1 victory. The goal where I ran from my own half to score is a great memory of mine and was certainly the best goal for Arbroath although I have probably scored better goals in my career.”
Tosh’s £120,000 move to Dundee is in fact the highest fee that the Gayfield club have received in their 132 year history and he spent three seasons at Dens Park before a combined reported fee of £200,000 took Tosh and Lee Power to Hibernian.
Whilst Tosh has continued his football career as a player and now coach, Power set up a publishing firm CRE8 that has been heavily involved in the design and production of football match programmes and also produced The Scottish Football League Review for a couple of seasons.
The spell at Hibs was a frustrating one and Tosh was loaned out to Partick Thistle, where he faced his former Arbroath side on League business for the first time. He said, “It was not the warmest of welcomes that I got but that is football and you just get on with things.”
Tosh was also loaned out to Exeter City before moving on to Raith Rovers where he went back to Gayfield to join Arbroath as a loan player before he moved to Angus rivals Forfar Athletic on a permanent basis in 2001. If he manages to score in this weekend’s fixture against Arbroath, Tosh will be repeating a feat that he has already managed three times. Tosh scored twice for Forfar in a 2-2 draw back in March 2004 and five months later he was one of the goalscorers in a 5-0 win for the Loons.
John McGlashan, who ironically scored in the drawn game in 2004, took Tosh back to Gayfield as a loan signing in 2007 before making the move permanent with Tosh signing a fourth deal with his home club in July 2007.
The striker was part of the squad promoted from the Third Division under McGlashan and he enjoyed it saying, “Winning promotion was a great experience and we went up via the Play-Offs when we beat Stranraer.
“I did not play as much as I would have liked that season but I still recognised it as a great achievement for the club and the players that were there at the time.”
Tosh’s frustration at not playing often enough saw him move north to join Cove Rangers in January 2009 and he won a Highland League Championship medal at Allan Park. The stay did not last the calendar year with Tosh saying, “Things were not working out during my second season at Cove and I got the chance to come back to The Scottish Football League with Montrose.
“I played as a trialist and scored on my debut against Queen’s Park at Hampden.
“I am delighted Steven Tweed got in touch and got me back in amongst things. It is a better quality League and I enjoyed my first five months although we never moved up the table as much as we had hoped.”
With one eye on the future, Tosh signed on at Links Park for another season although he now combines his playing duties with coaching the Links Park squad. Tosh, who is also working his way through his coaching badges, seems to be enjoying the dual role.
He said, “It is a great position to be in as I can combine playing with starting off my coaching career. At my age of 36, it is a great opportunity to be involved coaching first team players at a senior club.
“I am still a player first and foremost and my intention is to step away from playing and take up coaching at some stage but I still have plenty to give on the pitch.
“However, I am not totally ready to jump over the fence and become involved in management just yet.”
Tosh and his team-mates will be looking to get Montrose’s first points of the season from their local derby and following defeats from Queen’s Park and East Stirlingshire, a win is overdue.
He said, “We have been unlucky in our League games this season having lost to late goals on both occasions. We have also given away two penalties and in the first half last Saturday, we were all over East Stirling and we also had a spell where we were well on top of Queen’s Park.”
Despite these defeats, motivation is not an issue at Links Park with Tosh saying, “There is a great spirit at the club and we know that we can play well but we need to do it more consistently. We need to do it for 90 minutes.
“The half-time whistle against East Stirling came at a bad time for us as we were well on top. Maybe next time when we are on top, I will just ask the referee not to bother changing ends as half-time upset our momentum last weekend!
“It is hard to understand our inconsistency in the one match but I know it is something that Steven is working hard on solving.”
It looks like being the case of four heads being better than one as Montrose look to get winning with Tosh saying, “Steven is much the same age as me and is still playing so we have a lot in common and he involves me in lots of discussions about the team.
“He also managed to bring Ray Farningham in to assist him and he is an extremely experienced coach. It is fantastic to have Ray on board for this new season and our goalkeeping coach Stuart Garden is another experienced guy to have about the place as we try and turn things around.”
And how would it feel to score against Arbroath this time Tosh was asked?
“I will treat it as any other game, although I will probably be shouted at a bit more than usual but the best answer to that is always to stick a goal in the onion bag.
“Fans like giving stick out but I take it as a compliment as at least you know they have noticed you if they are doing that.”
Tosh finished by saying, “I have scored against Arbroath before and that usually results in getting me more shouts from the crowd and I would settle for that this weekend.”
