CFL.ca Staff

TORONTO – Toronto Argonauts head coach Scott Milanovich was coy all last week leading up to his team’s game in Montreal where he was to make his first appearance in the place that he helped earn two Grey Cup championships.

A few days removed from a huge win and with the Argos’ next opponent, the BC Lions, on his mind, he admitted that not only did he take some satisfaction in beating his former team but he is happy to know that the first game in Montreal is now behind him.

“I would be lying if I said otherwise”, he said Monday.  “You always want to beat your friends more than your enemies.  It was certainly fun and exciting to win that game”.

The first-year head coach also admitted that although he and his staff were focused on getting a win, he would be remiss if he didn’t acknowledge that memories of the place he spent five years as an offensive coordinator didn’t come flooding back at least for a short period of time.

“By the time I walked onto the field I was in game mode.  I thought there would be some emotions when I was walking into the stadium –  I spent a lot of time there and I had a lot of friends there and still do and it was nice to come away with a win”.

Coming away with a win in Montreal is something the Argonauts have done about as rarely as any other in the CFL.  In fact, the Argonauts had only won three of their last 10 regular season game at Percival Molson Stadium heading into last Friday.

With a strong first half from Ricky Ray, two touchdown receptions from Chad Owens, a defence that frustrated Als QB Anthony Calvillo at times and two 50-yard field goals from rookie Swayze Waters, the Argonauts were able to escape Montreal with a 23-20 win; their first on the Als home turf since 2010.

Still, Milanovich is far from satisfied and understands that his team needs to steer clear of getting too confident just because they beat an East Division rival.  

“We still haven’t put a full game together”, he said. “Defensively we didn’t play the way we wanted to in the first half, played great in the second half.  Offensively we played very well in the first half but fell off the board in the second half.”

One thing the Argos won’t need, according to Milanovich, is motivation heading into this Monday’s contest against the league’s reigning MOP and the Lions.

“They are the defending champions and teams always get up to play the defending champions.  (The players) are going into a bye so they want to leave and go on their break feeling good about themselves.”

- With files from argonauts.ca