Match Report - By Ken Ferguson

EAST FIFE 2 BRECHIN CITY 0

By John Hoey

Brechin’s opening league encounter against East Fife at New Bayview got off to a disappointing start with City going down by 2-0 to Stevie Crawford’s side.
The first-half was fairly evenly contested, but two goals within three minutes from Paul McManus and ex City star Scott Thomson were enough to seal City’s fate.
City were forced to make changes to last week’s team. With Jon Seeley being unavailable because of work commitments, boss Jim Duffy drafted midfielder Ian Nimmo into the right-back position, moving Richard Walker into central defence to partner Paul McLean.
The opening quarter of an hour was fairly evenly matched with City if anything, having the better of the opening exchanges.
In the 9th minute City came close to opening the scoring when Rory McAllister played a pass through to Ian Harty but Fifer’s keeper Michael Brown did well to save Harty’s effort.
However, as the half wore on, the hosts began to gain the upper hand, and they in turn were unlucky not to break the deadlock in the 30th minute when a David Muir thunderbolt came crashing off the bar.
The opening goal though was only delayed and it came in the 30th minute when Paul McManus, looking suspiciously offside, forced the ball home from close-range with the City defence unable to clear its lines.
City had hardly time to draw breath from this when they found themselves two goals down, and what a goal this second East Fife goal was.
A ball from the right found its way to former Brechin midfielder Scott Thomson at the edge of the penalty-box and he superbly volleyed the ball into the net with Craig Nelson absolutely helpless.
City tried hard to get back into the game straight away, and Kevin Byers was unlucky to see his lob from the edge of the box strike the crossbar with the keeper beaten.
Neither side made any changes after the break and Brechin were first to threaten in the 54th minute when Harty played a good pass through to Byers who looked set to score, but East Fife keeper Michael Brown dived to his right to save the midfielder’s shot.
McManus though had a couple of further chances for the hosts in the 55th and 57th minutes, with his first effort hitting the side-netting and his second shot flying high over the bar.
Brechin were finding it difficult to make any impression in front of goal, and in an effort to freshen things up, manager Duffy replaced Ian Harty with Sean McKenna in the 74th minute and replaced Neil Janczyk and Byers with Mark Docherty and Chris McGroarty a minute later.
The changes though did little to alter the course of the game, and it was East Fife who came closest to scoring again in the 88th minute when Nelson had to bring off a great save to deny Jordyn Sheerin and right on the final whistle Mark Staunton was clean through but drove the ball against Nelson’s legs when it seemed easier to score.
City manager Jim Duffy said after the game,
“ It was disappointing to lose the match.
For the first half-hour I thought that there was very little in it. Ian Harty had a good chance and their keeper made a great save, and to be honest I was quite happy with the way the team were playing, in spite of the fact that we had to re-arrange things at the back with Jon Seeley being unavailable and Barry Smith still away.
I thought that the first goal was offside, but their second goal was a phenomenal goal and I have to applaud it. The ball came to him on his weaker side and he just hit it superbly and there’s nothing you can do about that.
It obviously made things very difficult for us after that and in the second-half East Fife had a couple of chances but we were pressing the game and had a couple of chances ourselves.
There were a couple of goalmouth scrambles but we just couldn’t put the ball in the net. East Fife have a lot of big guys in defence who put themselves in front of the ball. I thought the second-half was more even but over the course of the ninety minutes I didn’t think there was a great deal in it.
Their second goal was a goal fit enough to win any game and I don’t think you’ll see a better goal than that all season.”

John Hoey