Sean McGinty's own goal after 14 minutes set Hamilton Academical on their way against his former club in their League One opener, with Stuart McKinstry scoring twice and Stuart Bannigan and Stephen Hendrie also on target in a 5-0 victory at Links Park.
Bannigan was among the club's big summer signings involved in the opener, while Andy Ryan provided an assist after coming off the bench.
Back-to-back 5-0 wins
The victory made it back-to-back 5-0 wins for Accies, who beat Elgin City by the same scoreline in the Premier Sports Cup last week. It sent Darian MacKinnon's men to the top of League One on goal difference from part-time Lanarkshire rivals East Kilbride, who thumped Queen of the South 5-1 at K-Park.
The result came after a summer in which Hamilton spent despite their financial problems last term and expectations of tightening the purse strings. The club had bizarrely avoided punishment and fines for breaching rules regarding pension contribution payments and failing to pay some players on time towards the end of last season.
'It wasn't easy' - MacKinnon
MacKinnon told club media: "I thought we were good. We stood up to the battle. Montrose are a good side but we got the goals at the right time."
He added: "It wasn't easy. The scoreline might suggest that but it wasn't easy. They had a wee spell at the end of the first half when they caused us a few problems and, thankfully, we got the goals at the right time which killed the game."
"When you start to score goals at the top of the pitch, you don't want to give anything away. We wanted to keep it tight and I'll reiterate, it wasn't an easy game."
"You get the same number of points for winning 1-0 as you do 5-0. As I said last week, as soon as the final whistle blows, the game is dead and we move onto the next one now."
McKinstry praise
On two-goal hero McKinstry, MacKinnon added: "Stuart is a confidence player. He has so much ability and technique, he just needs to believe in himself a bit more. He just needs to add numbers to his game so I was delighted for him to get off the mark."
"But it is one game, let's not get carried away. Let's keep our feet on the ground and go on to the next one and prepare for Alloa now."
