Match Report - By Brechin City FC

Following an encouraging backdrop of 2 successive clean sheets and a victory against Cowdenbeath only 48 hours prior, Brechin City’s faint hopes of avoiding the ‘Club 42’ tag came to a shuddering halt at The Glebe against Annan Athletic.

In a game which had already become broadly meaningless for the visitors – although anything but, for the hosts – Annan replicated the comfortable 3-0 score line they had enjoyed at Galabank less than 2 weeks before.

City started with a teamsheet identical to that of the visit to Fife but were forced into 2 first half changes when Player-Manager Michael Paton and experienced defender Gerry McLauchlan both had to leave the field through injury.

Annan Athletic had taken the lead between the 2 forced substitutions when, in a bizarre and unwelcome replica of the opening goal at Galabank, a rebound from the crossbar fell kindly, this time for striker Iain Anderson, to gleefully tap home unchallenged.

In an attempt to change the flow of the game, City made 2 more substitutions at half-time – this time swapping strikers Rory Currie and Connor Coupe for loanees Sean Slaven and Adam Devine.

Shooting downhill in the second half, City’s online following would doubtless have been hoping to see some of the thunderous fighting spirit seen in second half come-backs over the years – but a second goal after 71 minutes from Annan’s Darren Christie following a flowing breakaway move put paid to that.

Little of note would happen beyond this, with the visitors looking altogether more likely to add to their tally than the home side would be in making inroads into turning the game around. The third goal duly arrived in the final stages through substitute Nathan Flanagan, despite the despairing efforts of Gregor Jordan on the line to keep his effort at bay.

With news having broken earlier in the day that both the SPFL and SFA were insistent that the Pyramid Play-Offs would indeed take place, City must now prepare for their two final SPFL League 2 matches in the knowledge that the most fundamental and crucial challenge lies in wait slightly further down the line in the form of Brora Rangers or Kelty Hearts.