Annan Athletic - Brechin City

Scottish Cup 4th Round - Saturday 29th November

Match Preview

Brechin City will set off on the 360 mile odd round trip to Annan early tomorrow morning to face the the Scottish League two side in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.

City will enter the game on the back of an impressive five game unbeaten run with victories against Ayr United, Stenhousemuir and Stirling Albion preceding draws against Forfar Athletic and Peterhead. The last two games are matches the City players were desperately disappointed not to have won and they will certainly be looking to get back to winning ways against Jim Chapman's team.

Manager Ray McKinnon has a full-strength squad from which to choose his starting eleven with the exception of Jamie Masson who has been denied permission to play by his parent club - Aberdeen FC and long-term injury victim Callum Tapping.

The City manager is immensely looking forward to the match and said,

"Annan will make this a very hard game for us. It is on a tight astroturf park and they will take a lot of confidence from beating Livingston there in the last round.
"If we get ahead I want the players to show that they have learnt from last weekend's game with Peterhead where we failed to see things out and lost a goal and two points to a late sucker-punch."

Annan counterpart Jim Chapman will have to do without the services of Steven Swinglehurst, Kenny Mackay and Stuart McColm while Peter Watson and David Hopkirk are doubtful.

The Annan boss said,

"It is really disappointing to be going into one of our biggest games of the season short-handed.
"However, the players that do play will be expected to put in a far stronger performance than the one that was seen at Berwick last week which was very disappointing.
"Our win over Livingston in the last round will mean that Brechin will not treat us lightly."

Galabank will no doubt have a larger than usual attendance for tomorrow's eagerly anticipated clash and the Annan Management Committee have set prices at a very favourable £10 for adults and £5 for concessions to entice as many people as possible to attend the match and the Social Club at the ground looks forward to welcoming the supporters of both sides before and after the match.

The referee for tomorrow's fixture is Barry Cook who has been in charge of one City match already this season, the 3-1 home victory over Morton on Saturday 4th October.

The Brechin City Supporters Club will be running a bus to the match which will depart from St Ninians Square at 9.00am. Very few seats remain so act quickly if you want to travel down to Annan by contacting Steven Stewart on 07547552209