Match Report - By Keith Johnston

It was a bright, sunny afternoon and Brechin welcomed Stirling Albion to Glebe Park for their first home league match of the season. Stirling have got off to a good start under manager Alan Moore, with City's Angus rivals Arbroath well beaten last Saturday. City were without a few regulars - the likes of Ally Mitchell, Steve Hampshire, Grant Johnson, Jamie Smith and Scott McCulloch all missing.

Brechin made a decent enough start to the game with some good possession play. They had their first chance in the 10th minute as Graham Gibson and Scott MacNicol combined down the right, but Gibson's cross was headed wide by Templeman.
Moments later Martin Glancy had a good run at the other end, skipping past Shaun Dennis with ease, only to be blocked by Scott Walker at the expense of a corner. The corner should have been cleared at the far post by City, but the ball found its way to Glancy who slammed the ball home despite MacNicol's efforts on the line.
Brechin had a chance to reply quickly from a corner of their own three minutes after going behind. King's kick wasn't cleared properly and Kevin Byers had an attempt blocked before the ball broke to Templeman and he shot narrowly wide.
However disaster struck for City in the 31st minute as they went two goals down. Scott McLean was tripped in the box by Charlie King - it was definitely a penalty, but needlessly so. McLean was never going to score from the corner of the box and perhaps it was a case of the wrong player in the wrong place for City. McLean got up and calmly sent Hay the wrong way with his penalty.
There then followed a spell when City seemed intent on committing suicide at the back and handing the visitors more goals. First Scott Walker gave David Hay a dreadful back pass, letting in Glancy again. Fortunately for City Glancy appeared to have too much time for his own good and he hesitated before hitting the side netting.
Then with five minutes remaining in the half, Charlie King was again guilty of giving away possession allowing McLean a one on one with Hay but City's much maligned goalkeeper pulled off an excellent save.
Brechin recovered somewhat from these mishaps to have the last good chance of the half. King's cross was met by Paul Ritchie with a glancing header, but it went wide of the target. 2-0 at half time, but City were lucky it wasn't three or four.

The hope for City supporters was that the players would be given a good roasting at half time and come out a different team for the second half. This was not such an occasion though as Stirling secured the points on the hour mark after City had huffed and puffed for 15 minutes without making many chances. Martin Glancy cut inside Walker far to easily and his shot took a deflection off Deas that gave Davie Hay no chance.
Dick Campbell responded with a triple substitution, but in truth he would have needed to replace the whole team. The three new faces did a bit of good initially, but it wasn't long before passes started going astray and heads got lower and lower - on and off the pitch.
Kevin McLeish looked the liveliest of the subs, putting a couple of excellent balls into the box that made the defenders divert them for corners.
City's day was probably summed up when in the 76th minute McLeish crossed for Templeman who was all alone at the far post, possibly on account of being miles offside. He tried to head the ball back across goal for Ritchie, but it was too high and Stirling were able to clear.
A couple of minutes later, Templeman had a shot from distance that trickled wide, but by this stage the game was over and you felt that Brechin could play all night and not score.

Overall, a desperately disappointing performance by Dick Campbell's men. Admittedly, there were a few regulars missing, but Brechin have supposedly built up a strong squad of 21 players and today just wasn't up to the required standard. It is difficult to say exactly what the problem is at the moment, but City haven't fired on all cylinders yet this season and need to get themselves together quickly before they drop too many points.

Other Results - Bell's League Division 2

Alloa Athletic 2 Forfar Athletic 3

Forfar beat Alloa to continue their fine start to the season.

Arbroath 0 Dumbarton 2

Dumbarton take all three points at Gayfield.

Ayr United 2 Berwick Rangers 1

The Honest Men overcome Berwick Rangers by the odd goal in three.

Morton 3 Stranraer 1

Morton get their first points of the season at home to Stranraer.