Match Report - By John Hoey

Brechin City 2 Stirling Albion 1

Brechin City extended their winning run to three games after a hard-fought 2-1 victory over basement club Stirling Albion at Glebe Park last night.

City opened the scoring in the 27th minute through Robert Thomson but they faced an uphill struggle to hold on to their lead when full-back Colin Hamilton was dismissed by referee Mat Northcroft for deliberate handball in the City penalty-box early in the second-half. Goalkeeper Graeme Smith then performed heroics to save the resultant penalty kick and a couple of minutes later, substitute Paul McLean extended City's lead, heading home a Jamie Masson corner kick with his first touch of the ball.

The Binos then put a lot of pressure on the home defence and despite the fact that they pulled a goal back through ex City striker Graham Weir with five minutes remaining, the home defence stood firm for what was in the end a deserved victory given the tremendous work-rate the players put in.

The result lifts City to fifth place in the League One table, just four points behind leaders Forfar Athletic who visit the Glebe on Saturday.

Gary Fusco had the first opportunity of the match when his pile-driven from 20 yards went narrowly past Callum Reidford's right-hand post but the visitors responde immediately with Smith being called into action to deny Gordon Smith (twice) and Sandy Cunningham. City weathered those attacks though and moved upfield to open the scoring after 27 minutes.

Greg Cameron picked up the ball just within the Stirling half and delivered an inch-perfect cross to the feet of Thomson who brilliantly controlled the ball before bringing it down and blasting a great shot into the bottom corner of the net.

There was drama in the 53rd minute when Colin Hamilton who had already been booked was sent off for handling a Smith shot on the line but namesake Graeme came to City's rescue, diving to his right to parry away Smith's spot-kick.

City then incredibly went up the park to make it 2-0. City manager Ray McKinnon had replaced Thomson with Paul McLean after Hamilton!s sending-off and City's longest serving player doubled his side's lead with his first touch of the ball, heading home a Masson free-kick.

City then had to withstand some persistent Stirling pressure and with five minutes remaining, they conceded a goal when former City striker Graham Weir fired home a right-foot drive from just within the penalty-box.

However, the City defence stood firm in the five or so minutes remaining to clinch an important win.