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Definia

Brothers United in Montreal

The first week here at Montreal United has been beyond anything I expected. Now not only did I not expect to be here in Montreal, Quebec... but I also had no idea I would be here playing professional football alongside my two brothers, Reece Munro and Bruce McAllister. Here we are, the three of us, sitting in the Montreal stadium looking out at the empty stands, the empty pitch in silence just taking in the sight and living in the moment. All three of us here together in a new country, at a new team... professionals together.

It's too good to be true I still can't believe it, the first week was by in a jiffy. Signing our first professional contracts, meeting all our new teammates, so many new faces and some we are familiar with, Bergmann and Fonseca both got drafted with us from our class. Settling into the new city and surroundings was quite difficult for three guys who had never ventured past the waters surrounding the UK, then there was training to try and settle into as well so really there wasn't much of a chance to stop and reflect on the last 10 weeks and how our lives have completely changed. So sitting here in silence was as good a time as any to just think. For me though, the biggest thing that stands out the most of it all, isnt the new environment, the stadium, facilities, new people.... it's the fact I'm going to be doing it all with my brothers... but that brought an edge of pressure, being the eldest I started to feel even more repsonsibility. It wasn't just about performing for my team mates, coaches and fans, it was also about not letting my brothers down. They always looked up to me and now I need to be there for them, on the pitch.

Monday morning, the day after the draft and all the travelling was the first training session as players of Montral United. I was way more nervious than I wanted to admit or show. I got there quite early, as always when it comes to being where I need to be, Reece and Bruce came along and the car park carrying on with each other as always, it kinda eased me a wee bit. The nervousness dwindled and more excitement started to brew. We headed in and came to the locker room, it was huge and bright and the first thing we noticed together, you couldn't miss it, was our names on the wall above the benches and next to our lockers. We were seated together... whilst I appreciated the sentiment from the coaches... I don't think they quite understood the hilarity and goofiness having the three of us seated next to each other would be, though maybe they thought we would keep each other in check, which was probably slightly true, except it would fall on me to keep they two in check.

When getting ready Reece informed us he had a discussion with the coaching team and they were going to be moving him to a more attacking role, out on the left side. That was a surprise, I only ever knew him to play in the centre behind me, making tackles and running around like a long distance runner constantly, never out of stamina. He said they thought his technical ability, work rate and general football intelligence would be better suited for an attacking role, which made sense. I was glad he specified football intelligence though, because it sure as hell wasn't general intelligence!

This did however make me think, maybe they want the 3 of us to lead the midfield attacking line? I like to play centrally behind the striker and Bruce plays our right, the sheer thought of it brought my hairs up in the back of neck, boy that would be brilliant. Reece down my left and Bruce down my right? Yes please.

Training was a big step up compared to anything we had endured before, everything was so much faster, everybody was so much quicker and your mistakes were not forgiven. You couldn't hide from them, the seniors in the team made sure you learned from your mistakes, they weren't badgering or anything, it was a gentle nudge and they always framed it in a way that you discovered the mistake yourself and knew how to fix it, which was a way of learning I really appreciated.

As an attacking midfielder my purpose on the pitch is to create chances for the team, link up the midfield with the striker and the wingers, the coaches encouraged me to be brave on the ball, take risks and get further forward whenever I could. Having a strong weak foot allowed me to be rather free-flowing in a positional sense as I could take the ball from either side of the pitch and have an effort at goal. Their faith in allowing me more creative freedom gave me confidence. Reece had the biggest adjustment to make in training because of his change of position but he was really taking it in his stride, he was so comfortable it was as if he was a natural winger. Bruce was continuing as he left off in academy, fearless on the ball, never bothered by the pressure of the defenders, in fact I think it made him play better, he always thrives under pressure a lot more than when he has too much time on the ball to think. Always wanting to run at defenders and make something happen, he was making a name for himself amongst the senior players as they kept saying how hard he was to defend against. Great that's all he needs, an ego boost in his first week.

There were some great moments in the practice games we had, one that stood out was a piece of play where Reece ran down the left side and cut in just outside the edge of the box, he slowed down on the ball to draw the defender in to tackle, when he was commited Reece played a fast pass to me outisde the semi-circle at the edge of the box and immediately I heard a shout from my side saying "touch" and just instinctly and flicked it immediately out right to Bruce who had started a full speed run into the box, his change of pace threw off his marker, and he hit the shot first time into the top corner from bang on the 18 yard line. It was such a natural piece of play, something you just pick up by playing for years down the park with your mates. It was then that I thought, if this is how we end up lining up in games then this could be a really fun season. But Bruce and I still had to have a kind of one-to-one chat with the coaches and what their plans are for us.

After training we would head out into the city, exploring, getting some grub and just hanging about, talking about how insane it is how different our life is now, just a few weeks ago we were opponents in academy and now we're here together. Towards the end of the week the manager wanted to have a chat with the squad after training, he was giving the team the chat... the pre-season chat. Most of what he was talking about was togetherness, teamwork and trust and it really hit me. One thing though that he mentioned stuck out to me the most. "The best teams understand each other and trust each other", I looked over at Reece and Bruce next to me, I think we understood that more than most, we have the added advantage that not many teams or players have. We're brothers, played together for years, lived together for years... we've played with each other at parks, we've played against each other on the pitch... Now we had a chance to bring that connection here at Montreal United.

That brings us back to the now, we stayed behind after training and went up to the seats in the stadium, the pitch looked beautiful under the floodlights, the stadium eerily silent so much that Bruces fart echoed around the stadium, typical idiot that would ruin such a moment! We composed ourselves and looked out at the pitch, looking down towards the left side goal, Reece pointed out to the left wing and said "That's mine", I looked out and pointed at the middle and said "That's mine", Bruce pointed out to the right and said "That's mine"... I replied "Aye right, you're right back in the toilet ya smelly bam" and we all went into a fit of laughs again. Serious moments amongst us never lasted, 3 idiots that just wanted to play football together... it's about as serious as it gets.... the Minors better watch out, the league that is...

**GingerJLD** · 2026-06-10, 10:54 AM - Word count:

See you on the pitch! Once a Royal always a Royal good luck man!