Match Report - By Brechin City FC

Brechin City's return to the second tier in Scottish Football ended in a 4-1 defeat at the hands of full time Queen of the South.

City found themselves 2-0 down at half-time, and conceded a third midway through the second half. A well worked move saw Chris O'Neil score the Glebe Park side's first Championship goal - but a prompt reply from the Doonhamers restored the 3 goal advantage extinguishing any hopes of a comeback.

The Brechin squad had travelled to Dumfries in confident mood for their first ever Championship League game. Having already played and lost to ICT and Falkirk, two of the pre-season favourites for a top 4 finish, the feeling was that Queens would present a fairer test of the team’s chances of competing at this level.

The first twenty minutes saw few goalmouth incidents of note, but there were three talking points. Firstly, with only five minutes on the clock, Paul McLean received a nasty head injury which would later need stitches and require a Terry Butcher style bandage to stem the blood. Queens also received an injury blow when, in the twentieth minute, goal-keeper Alan Martin had to be replaced by his depute Jack Leighfield. The undoubted highlight, however, of a particularly dour opening period, was a Gary Fusco pirouette which took two Queens players out of the game in a move of which Rudolf Nureyev would have been proud.

Queens almost opened the scoring in the 24th minute, when a header following a corner kick was cleared off the line and on to the crossbar by Finn Graham. The opening goal, however, was only delayed by four minutes when Queen’s overlapping right back, Jordan Marshall, played a ball across the box where prolific goal scorer Derek Lyle was waiting to drive the ball past the helpless Buzz from twelve yards.

The goal inspired the home side and there followed a period of sustained pressure as they pushed on for a second goal. Buzz made a good save in the 33rd minute from a Dykes header and Pabs made a last gasp challenge on the six yard line to prevent a certain goal.

Unfortunately, the challenge resulted in Paul’s head wound re-opening and him having to leave the field for further treatment. With repairs completed and Pabs ready to return, Brechin had a few opportunities to put the ball out of play to allow him back on the field but instead the ball was given away and, in a quick Queen’s attack and after some pinball in the six yard box, the ball once again landed at the feet of Derek Lyle, who gleefully converted to give Queens a 2-0 half-time lead.

The second half started in much the same fashion as the first, with Queens on the offensive. Their pressure paid off in the 52nd minute when Lyndon Dykes outstripped Willie Dyer, who made a vain attempt to stop him (a challenge that eventually brought him a yellow card), before crossing the ball to Derek Lyle who looked set to bag his hat-trick. However, Buzz managed to block his shot, but it rebounded kindly to John Rankin who made no mistake from five yards.

On 70 minutes Kalvin Orsi and Jordan Sinclair replaced Isaac Layne and Gary Fusco and, five minutes later, Kalvin played his part in City’s best move of the game. After a flowing passing movement in the middle of the park the ball was played out to Kalvin, who moved forward down the left before crossing the ball into the box where Ally Love knocked it into the path of Chris O’Neill, who made no mistake from a yard out.

Unfortunately, the hoped-for fight back was short lived when, only three minutes later, a long ball through the centre of the Brechin defence was misjudged by Euan Spark whose headed back pass was short, allowing Lyndon Dykes to nip in and lob Buzz from the edge of the box. Apart from a half chance created by Jacko, the final twelve minutes passed without incident and the hosts ran out comfortable winners.

The team could not be faulted for effort and the small but enthusiastic band of travelling supporters stayed till the end to clap the players from the pitch. Hopefully next week, on home turf and withthe expected return of at least one midfield player, City will endeavour to kick start their campaign against fellow Championship newcomers Livingston.