Match Report - By Secretary

BRECHIN City players showed the kind of guts, character and determination which will be needed in abundance in the weeks ahead to gain three points in this top of the table clash against East Fife.

City started with Charlie King in a striker's role alongside Rory McAllister and it was the home side who enjoyed the much better start by dominating possession in the first 25 minutes, although the visitor's more direct approach saw them often a threat.

Kevin Byers had the game's first chance on 6 minutes, but drifted his shot wide after weaving his way through the Fife rearguard. At the other end, Bobby Linn brought out a decent save from Craig Nelson.

Brechin grew more and more confident and began to put the Methil side under more pressure. The breakthrough finally came in the 19th minute - Darren Smith made a run along the bye-line which took him past three defenders in total, and crossed to Byers, who was on hand to calmly curl the ball home from 12 yards.

City were in front on merit at this stage, however the lead last only seven minutes following the award of a very harsh penalty. A Lloyd Young cross was touched on by McManus, who forced Nelson to palm it away at his far post Templeman crossed the loose ball to Dougie Cameron and the official decided upon a penalty for Ward's challenge. Paul McManus was fortunate, after he sent Nelson the wrong way from the spot, his spot-kick ended up in the net off the inside of the goalkeeper's right-hand post. to score via the post.

The penalty award took the sharpness away from Brechin for a spell and the Fifers came storming back at them. However, Craig Nelson was only called upon once in the remainder of the half, when he acrobatically denied Chris Templeman.

There was more controversy when Paul McManus and John Ward clashed. Ward appeared to be fouled, but the referee gave the free-kick to East Fife and the two players squared up to one another. McManus appeared to lift his hands to push the defender away, but met with the same fate as his marker.

The second half saw City start the more creative once again, with Fusco starting to come into the game in the heart of midfield, where his dogged determination broke up the play time and time again.

East Fife always looked to hit on the break and hit the ball long and Templeman went close with an effort from a decent position. Then Kevin Byers twice cut in from the left and evaded his marker, only to curl the ball wide of the target on both occasions.

Brechin introduced Janczyk for the hard-working Nimmo in the 61st minute and while City were hoping for the usual prompting from the creative midfield player, the surface wasn't helpful to “Janny's” normal passing game.

City should have been up against ten men after Young took out McAllister as he tried to run through on goal. The striker complained to the referee about the challenge, but the official waved his claims aside. City were then left dumbstruck after the award of a free-kick, which Charlie King tried to take quickly, only to be booked for doing so!

City's second substitute, Stephane Ettien, who replaced Darren Smith, was next to be the subject of a crude lunge from Young and again, the City striker failed to get any protection as a foot and an elbow appear to fell him to the ground. The linesman had a clear view of the incident, but once again City got nothing.

Rory McAllister had to be substituted with two minutes left. The big striker was suffering from cramp, having put in a hard shift and after being treated by Lewis Davidson, the decision was made to replace him with David Murie.

The one thing that referee Alan Muir did get right was the addition of five extra minutes, given the time-wasting tactics of the opposition once again. Every time the ball went out of play for a goal kick, there was a lengthy delay. However, having lost in injury time on their last visit to Glebe Park, you would have thought Dave Baikie's side would have learned their lesson, but that proved not to be the case!

Three and a half minutes into injury time. Ettien was fouled on the right side of the Fifers' penalty box and after a wee bit of debate, the Frenchman stepped aide to allow Neil Janczyk to curl in a wonderful free-kick off the far post and into the bottom corner.

Brechin need to continue to show the same grit and desire in the coming weeks. If they can, well anything is still possible. Especially if they enjoy another weekend where almost all of their competitors dropped points.

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