Match Report - By John Hoey

A 6th minute goal from Martin Grehan was enough to secure victory for Stirling Albion at Forthbank.

Although City battled hard for the ninety minutes they were unable to claw back a goal, and this defeat means that they slip down one place in the Second Division table to 7th position.

City had to make one change to last week’s winning side. Neil Janczyk was declared unfit prior to the game, and his place in midfield was given to Mark Docherty who was making his competitive debut for the club. Janczyk’s absence also meant that Charlie King led out the side.

Stirling did the early pressing and an 4th minute Stewart Devine shot from outside the box took a deflection but City keeper Craig Nelson saved easily.

The Bino’s took the lead just a couple of minutes later with a well-worked goal. Steven Canning collected a pass from Willie Dyer in midfield but was dispossessed by John O’Neil who sent an inch-perfect pass forward to Grehan just inside the penalty box and the big striker deftly slotted the ball into the far corner of the net.

Grehan delivered a dangerous cross from the right shortly afterwards, and Nelson had to dive low to gather the ball and avert the danger.

Brechin had their first chance of the match in the 10th minute when a great Rory McAllister cross from the left found Ian Harty just inside the box, but the Stirling defence closed him down quickly and although he managed to get a shot in, it lacked power and Stirling keeper Scott Christie saved easily.

McAllister had a great chance for City in the 17th minute when a Gary Fusco cross from the right came his way, but he headed wide with the goal at his mercy.

In the 26th minute, Harty beat a couple of men outside the box and shot for goal but the ball flew over the bar.

Brechin were coming more into the game as the half wore on but were finding it difficult to prise open a determined Binos rearguard. They nearly went further behind in the 39th minute when a wonderful turn and shot from Michael Mullen looked net-bound but Nelson brilliantly turned the ball away for a corner.

Neither side made changes at half-time and the second-half soon developed into the pattern of the latter part of the first with plenty of midfield action but little goalmouth threat from either side.

In the 57th minute, Grehan turned and shot from 30 yards, but the shot lacked direction and went well wide.

In an effort to take something from the game, City manager Jim Duffy replaced Ian Harty and Charlie King in the 75th minute with Sean McKenna and Mark Cowan and a couple of minutes later Ian Nimmo came on for Steven Canning. This moved nearly paid off for City in the 83rd minute when Nimmo played a pass forward to Cowan who then sent a pass into the penalty-box for McAllister, but the striker was again closed down quickly by the Stirling defence although he did manage to get a shot in which was deflected for a corner.

On the stroke of full-time, Docherty played a good pass to McAllister but the striker shot just wide.

Brechin boss Jim Duffy, speaking immediately after the match said,

“ There wasn’t a lot in the game and I’m a bit disappointed about losing it because I felt that we played well.

We made a bad mistake and lost a goal because of it, but in general I thought that a lot of the players played really well. If the majority of players play well then you can’t complain too much.

The lads worked really hard, but we just didn’t get a break in front of goal today. The ball was blocked or hit a leg and we just couldn’t quite create a clear opening but in terms of general play, I thought we played quite well and our work-rate was excellent.

Most people would think that Stirling Albion are one of the teams that will be up there at the end of the season but we showed that we could compete and that was important.

This was always going to be a difficult match but we tried to be positive and take the game to Stirling. They had three big guys at the back and made things difficult for us but we tried to press and tried to win the game.

Our two full-backs were getting forward at every opportunity. I thought that Richard Walker and Willie Dyer were excellent today, getting forward all the time and put a lot of crosses into the box, but you have to compliment the opposition because they defended very well. They congested that central area and they made it difficult to create space.

There’s no million pound players out there that are going to do something out of the ordinary, our lads had to work to create space and to be fair I felt we tried to do that.

Our final ball, our final pass or action let us down at times, but this is the Scottish Second Division not the Premiership so we can’t be too critical of the players because they tried to play football, they tried to create, so from my point of view I was delighted with the performance but disappointed with the result.

That wee bit of creativity was missing, but don’t forget that we were missing Neil Janczyk who’s probably our most creative midfield player and who can open up defences and we were also missing Kevin Byers who’s another player who can do something that bit different at this level, but the players who played today did well. They gave everything they had as did Stirling. That’s why we cancelled each other out at times because both sets of players were really working as hard as they could for their teams.

For me, it wasn’t a classic game, but it was a good, competitive Second Division match. We’ll take the result on the chin and continue to work hard and try to improve.”

Other Results - Irn Bru 2nd Division

Cowdenbeath 1 Alloa Athletic 1

Honours Shared at Central Park

Dumbarton 3 Clyde 3

Six Goal Thriller at Dumbarton

East Fife 1 Arbroath 1

Fifers and Lichties Share the Spoils

Peterhead 2 Stenhousemuir 2

Even Stevens at Balmoor