'I always knew I'd go back' - Former Dungannon Swifts, Newry City and Portadown star happy to come back home ahead of new season

With Shea Campbell’s side booking their return to the Irish League’s second-tier for the first time since 2017 after beating Dergview in a promotion/relegation play-off last season and Montgomery departing Portadown having helped them secure their spot back in the top-flight, the stars aligned for a third reunion.

Through winning the Championship with Newry City and spells at Dungannon Swifts and Loughgall, Montgomery’s perfect picture always involved finishing his career at the same place where it all began attending matches at Holm Park with his father before breaking into the senior ranks aged 19.

The 33-year-old has always kept in contact with Shea Campbell – a teammate during his previous spell with City and now the manager that has masterminded recent success – and admits driving up to training for the first time earlier this summer brought the memories flooding back.

"I always knew I'd go back,” he said. “I've grown up watching Armagh City with my dad, going to matches when they were in the Premiership and top-end of the Championship and having played there and got them promoted into the Championship before I left...I wanted to try different clubs and leagues to push myself as far as I could, but the plan was always to come back and finish playing at Armagh City. I'll not be moving on anywhere else.

"I had the option to go back a couple of times with Shea and I wasn't ready. I started there when I was 19 and had five seasons...at this stage it was a simple decision with the club being promoted, but I was keen to join regardless of if they got promoted or not.

"There have been a lot of changes since I was last there behind the scenes, there's a different manager, different committee, a lot of new faces, but it felt like going home the first day driving up to training. I've known Shea from playing with him, playing against him, playing against his teams and it was an easy transition."

Armagh get their campaign underway on Saturday against Institute, who were minutes away from sealing Premiership promotion last term before losing out to Ballymena United.

While many pre-season predictions might have Campbell’s men fighting for safety, Montgomery insists they’ll take teams by surprise and enter the campaign with no fear.

"Since I've left I've been in so many different situations - I won the Championship twice with Portadown and Newry City and I've been in relegation battles with Newry too, so I know what it takes to dig in and what it's like going in as underdogs,” he added. “That season with Newry where we stayed up a couple of years ago we were underdogs most weeks and Armagh will go in as underdogs most Saturday's, but I know we're going to take teams by surprise with the players Shea has.

"We've added quality, a bit of experience and the boys that haven't played Championship football have no fear about it."