Match Report - By John Hoey

Brechin City 1 Rangers 2

Plucky Brechin City were desperately unlucky not to take a share of the spoils after losing 2-1 against Rangers at Glebe Park.

Ray McKinnon's injury-hit side gave as good as they got over the course of the 90 minutes and can consider themselves really unfortunate not to have taken anything from the game.

City had strong claims for a penalty waved aside by referee Andrew Dallas after 21 minutes when Alan Trouten appeared to be fouled in the box by Gers keeper Cammy Bell but to the consternation of the home fans the referee booked 'Trouts' for diving. There was further agony for the City support a couple of minutes later when the visitors grabbed the lead in fortunate circumstances to say the least.

An Ian Black pass from central midfield struck Johnny Brown on the shoulder and as the full-back attempted to clear, he slipped allowing Fraser Aird to slot the ball past Graeme Smith in the City goal.

The home side took the game to Rangers after the break and they deservedly scored the equaliser four minutes into the half when Greg Cameron picked up the ball wide on the right and delivered a great pass into the Rangers box for Robert Thomson who swept a low drive beyond Bell.

However, Rangers scored the all-important winning goal in the 67th minute when substitute Nicky Clark who has a habit of scoring goals against City, and who had only been on the park for a couple of minutes after replacing Ian Black, rose at the back post to head home a Jon Daly cross from the right, and thereafter despite 100% effort from the players, there was no way back.