James McGarry tells Hibs they're onto a Nick Montgomery winner as next boss favourite helped seal Aberdeen FC transfer

James McGarry is in no doubt Nick Montgomery would do a great job at Hibs.

The Easter Road officials are currently in talks with the A-League-winning manager to replace Lee Johnson, who was sacked last month. Aberdeen new boy McGarry played under him at Central Coast Mariners and admitted the club’s success, on one of the lowest budgets in the league, was mainly down to their highly-rated boss.

McGarry stated: “I’m sure if he gets that opportunity he will do a great job and do very well. From my perspective, he is a great manager and I really enjoyed my time at Central Coast Mariners. That was massively down to him and his assistant Sergio (Raimundo) and it is a great club. (Hibs) It wouldn’t surprise me although I haven’t seen anything.” The New Zealand international only had six months under Montgomery but he played all 14 games and helped the Mariners to defy the odds and become the Australian champions. He admitted it has been his career highlight so far.

McGarry claimed: "Honestly, it was the best six months of my career so far. That was helped by the manager, Nick Montgomery, I had and the club environment he created. It was a very family-orientated group. I fitted in really well. I played 14 out of 14 games and we ended up going on and winning the Championship, which was just amazing.

"It was such a surreal experience, coming from a club that, budget-wise, was at the bottom of the A-League, along with one of the youngest teams in the league at the time. It just shows that football isn't always about the biggest budgets and best players. A lot of it is about who you bring in and creating a winning environment. So we won the league, it was awesome. The celebrations went on for a couple of weeks and were great.”

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