Much has happened since April 29th 2006.

That was the date of last game Brechin City played in Scottish Football’s second tier, but all that is about to change as Darren Dods and his coaches take their playing squad to Dumfries to face Queen of the South in the opening game of this season’s Ladbrokes Championship.

It’s perhaps something of a shame that the SPFL fixture computer dictated that City’s opening game takes place at our most distant opposition – sadly depriving many Glebe Park regulars of the chance to witness City’s return to this predominantly full-time second level.

With a range of views around the structure and timing of The Betfred Cup, it’s certainly the most commonly held belief that the new season is definitely underway when the league games start.

The Glebe Park side face a series of mighty challenges in the coming season, against 8 full time clubs most of whom have a legitimate belief that they can mount a serious challenge for one of the play-off spots, if not the top slot itself to secure automatic promotion to the Premiership.

City have already faced both Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Falkirk in the Betfred Cup and even the most ardent City fan would concede that our full time opponents were worthy winners on the day. That said, increased match sharpness, cohesion and confidence – along with the continued gelling of new players McGeever, Crighton, Spark, Orsi, Sinclair and Layne – will boost City’s chances of upsetting the big boys and the pundits.

That said, City head into the clash with the Doonhamers with no fewer than 3 suspensions – in addition to the continued absence of longer term injury victims Liam Watt and Euan Smith. Missing for the game at Palmerston is central defender Ryan McGeever, who carries forward a 2 game suspension from his time at Queen’s Park last season. He is joined on the sidelines, albeit for this game only, by both James Dale and Aron Lynas – both of whom picked up cautions in the play-off games last season which took them over the suspension threshold. This not without its controversy as many see the play-offs as a separate mini-tournament in its own right, resulting in the totting up of yellow cards as being disproportionately impactful – although the football authorities do not.

The squad trained well this week, with the Manager making the valid observation that, given midweek friendlies and Betfred Cup Ties, this is actually the first opportunity for City to have 2 midweek sessions.

If City’s season finished with penalty shoot outs, spare a thought for our hosts who, after an opening day Betfred Cup win over Stenhousemuir, saw each of their other 3 matches reach a spot kick conclusion. That saw them lose, surprisingly, to East Kilbride and then Hamilton Academical – before beating Albion Rovers to ultimately finish in third place in their group.

City haven’t faced the Dumfries side since The Doonhamers’ Division Two (third tier) League winning campaign in 2012/13, in a season they enjoyed a clean sweep over then-manager Ray McKinnon’s side. This included a 6-0 title clinching romp in a game also notable as it was one of two matches hosted at Forfar Athletic’s Station Park that season due to the harsh winter taking its toll on the Glebe Park pitch.

So, with last season's exciting climax still fresh in the mind of City supporters – let’s see what The Ladbrokes Championship has in store for Brechin City FC in 2017/18.