Montrose scores tense three-point win over East Ringwood in the Eastern Football League

MONTROSE has inflicted East Ringwood’s third narrow loss to start the Eastern Football League season after a nailbiting three-point win.

Montrose’s Tim Lanyon and East Ringwood’s Liam Kinsella fly for the ball. Picture: Chris Eastman/AAP

MONTROSE has inflicted East Ringwood’s third narrow loss to start the Eastern Football League season after a nailbiting three-point win on Saturday.

After trailing by 16 points at three-quarter time, the Demons finished with a 15.8 (98) to 14.11 (95) victory to score their second win of the season.

Montrose powered home with six goals to two in the final quarter to be one of six Division 1 sides with a 2-1 record.

The Demons only hit the lead late in the game, with Billy Schilling — in his 150th game — and Jordan Bastinac each kicking three goals to be among the best players.

Recruit Sam Gibson also made an emotional return to football in his first game for Montrose after being diagnosed with leukaemia in February, kicking two telling goals.

Recruits Tim Jones and James Wilsen both also continued their bright starts to the season, while Andrew Haining battled manfully in the ruck.

Billy Schilling takes a mark in his 150th game. Picture: Chris Eastman/AAP

Both of Montrose’s wins this season have been come-from-behind victories, underlining that the Demons may not be the easybeats some predicted at the start of the year.

“I think it was more the fact we’ve come from behind again and shown some real character,” Montrose coach Peter Bastinac said.

“I think they’re just enjoying playing with each other, the new boys that have come in have fitted in really well and the Montrose boys are just enjoying their new teammates.”

When asked how encouraging his side’s start to the season had been, Bastinac replied with, “very”.

“When I saw where we were predicted to finish, I didn’t think that was us,” he said.

“After last week, I did think, even though we lost by 10 goals, there was some really good signs we could be a really good footy team.

“If you look at the results, I think East Ringwood are a really good footy team, we won’t know where we are at for a couple more weeks, but there was some really good signs against Vermont last week and it was really positive on Saturday.”

The result was East Ringwood’s third narrow defeat in as many weeks after a 10-point loss in Round 1 and two-point defeat in Round 2.

East Ringwood led by 20 points at the halftime but was left to rue missed opportunities in front of goal after the main break, booting 5.9 to 10.2 in the second half.