City manager Michael O'Neill has declared himself very pleased with the courage shown by the players to turn the game around on Saturday against Queens Park.

The supporters and players have suffered a very hard week with the club being thrown out of the Scottish Cup, but the players held their heads high against the Spiders, even when it looked like they weren't going to get anything from the game.

Having gone 1-0 down as early as 75 seconds, the supporters down at Hampden must have feared the worst, and Queens went on to double their advantage when John Ward brought Alan Trouten down in the box, and Trouten dusted himself down to convert the resulting penalty after half an hour.

However, new signing Iain Diack, who came on as a substitute towards the end of the first half, brought his new club right back into the game when he intercepted Damiano Agostini’s misjudged headed pass-back and scored.

Scott Walker levelled the scores on 70 minutes and Darren Smith completed the comeback three minutes later to give his team-mates and Brechin’s traumatised fans cause for celebration after being denied their shot at glory against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

Manager Michael O'Neill said: “That was a massive result for us given the events of the past week.

“I told the lads that three points was crucial for us but we started poorly by giving away an unnecessary early goal and then conceding a penalty to go two down.

“I had a few harsh words with the lads at half- time and made a couple of changes in the second half and, to their great credit, the players responded.

“I brought on Iain Diack and when he scored it took us right back into the game.

“When Scott Walker equalised 20 minutes from the end I knew there was only going to be one winner and Darren Smith proved me right just a few minutes later.

“I think Diack in par- ticular will prove to be a very good signing for Brechin as he will get goals for the club and just seems to be becoming a better and better player as he gets older.

“Michael Paton, too, had another great game and with those two and Richard Walker’s brother Nicky now available for selection it give us a lot of options up front and in the middle of the park.

“Coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 shows what we are capable of and the aim now is to push for a place in the top four and a chance of a shot at promotion.”

Next up for City is 2nd placed Raith Rovers at Glebe Park on Saturday. City will be hoping to keep their good form in the league against a Raith side who suffered a blow to their Championship hopes at the weekend with a 3-0 defeat to Airdrie at New Broomfield.