Match Report - By Steven Mew

A LATE strike from Charlie King was enough to kill East Fife’s Scottish Cup dream and send Brechin City into the fourth round at Bayview last night.

Despite a swirling wind to contend with, both teams started brightly.

However, Brechin slowly began to take a grip of the game and, after Kevin Byers’ great work down the right in the eighth minute, the ball eventually fell to Adam Nelson who fired wide.

Two minutes later Darren Smith’s mazy run saw him past two defenders on the left and his ball broke to Charlie King, although he was bravely charged down by home keeper Scott Fox just as he was about to get a shot away.

After Fox did well to stop a Calum Smith toe-poke from six yards out in 15 minutes, City took the lead in the 21st minute as Byers latched on to Darren Smith’s pinpoint cross-field ball and ran on to slot the ball home.

The Fifers were level within six minutes, though, as Craig O’Reilly was barged into by David White in the area and Dougie Cameron stepped up to fire the resulting penalty past Craig Nelson.

There were few further chances before the interval, but 10 minutes after the restart a delightful ball from Ryan Blackadder gave Paul McManus the chance to hit the target, but the home striker completely missed his kick.

On the hour mark Cameron’s corner was hooked towards goal by Jonathan Smart, although Brechin keeper Nelson was equal to it, before a King cutback was blasted over by Calum Smith at the other end.

While the conditions were certainly affecting the quality of the football on display, both teams were huffing and puffing at this point to avoid the need for extra-time.

Indeed, Gary Greenhill and O’Reilly made way for Kevin Gordon and John Martin as the Fifers signalled their intent with just 15 minutes remaining.

With 10 minutes to go, McManus managed to get to the by-line and, after Richard Walker failed to clear his cutback, Bobby Linn could only fire his shot well over the Brechin crossbar from the edge of the area.

After Stuart Callaghan’s cross-cum-shot had to be well held by Fox in the wind, Brechin grabbed an unexpected winner just as the game was heading for an extra 30 minutes.

Richard Walker managed to skip past Cameron down the right and his lay-off was swept home by King who had been prowling near the home team’s penalty spot.

The Fifers then threw everything at City in an attempt to salvage something, and in the last minute Cameron’s inswinging corner from the right missed everyone, eventually rebounded off the back post and was then cleared to safety—much to the relief of the travelling support.

A trip to face Hamilton Accies now awaits Michael O’Neill’s men in the next round, although high-flying East Fife will no doubt be able to focus firmly on their league campaign from here on in.