Just over two-and-a-half-years after signing for the Valiants, Montano is set to pull on the Port Vale shirt for the 100th time tomorrow afternoon in what he describes as an 'amazing achievement'.
A century of appearances is special for any player, but Montano’s milestone is made even more impressive due to the setbacks he has experienced throughout his time at the club and he admits that after two frustrating seasons due to injuries and events off the field, it will be a proud moment for him.
Montano also explains how he has matured as a player on and off the pitch throughout his time at the club, and stresses that he deals with results and situations in a different manor to how he used to.
As ever though, the Vale number 11 is focused on the task at hand, and he is hoping that he can mark his 100th appearance with a good performance along with three points.
"It’s an amazing achievement for myself, especially after the last couple of years I’ve had at Vale. I’ve had two frustrating seasons in terms of injuries and a lot of things that were going on off the field.
“To hopefully be playing my 100th game for Port Vale will be a proud moment for me and hopefully it will come with a good performance from myself individually and from the team, and hopefully it will come with a good result as well.
“Each game is a learning curve whether you win, lose or draw, I used to beat myself up when we lost and I used to get too excited if we won, but now I take each game as a learning curve.
“I’m happy with a win but if we lose I try to focus on the little good things that we did in the game, and see if I can learn from the things we didn’t do so well and then take it into the next game, but before I used to go home and beat myself up."
Following Tuesday’s impressive 3-1 win against Exeter, it is still just one league defeat at Vale Park all season, and Montano described the difference in attitude amongst the players when playing in front of the home crowd.
The Vale sit just three points off a play-off place in League Two and the 28-year-old is hoping that they can keep pushing towards the top-seven and emphasises that anything can happen in this division.
From a personal point of view, Montano stresses that this season he has found more consistency despite playing out of position, but claims he is enjoying his football.
“The last two seasons I’ve been here, it’s been a place [Vale Park] where teams could come and take all three points and if we conceded a goal we’d all get down and felt like we weren’t going to come back into the game, it felt like the game was lost before we even started.
"This season has been a massive turnaround, I was talking to someone this morning and this time last year we were basically fighting relegation right down the bottom, and now we’re closer to the play-offs than down there so teams know that they’re going to come here and it’s not going to be an easy ride for them.
“It’s been a good season, but we’ve been tenth for about three months, but hopefully with a good result we can then jump another place and we just keep believing, you never know what can happen in this league.
“I think for myself I’ve found more consistency this year even though I’ve been playing out of position most of the season but I’m enjoying it, I’m enjoying my football."