Match Report - By John Hoey

STIRLING ALBION 2 BRECHIN CITY 3


Brechin City came out top in a five-goal thriller against bottom side Stirling Albion at Doubletree Dunblane Stadium, scoring two goals in the last seven minutes to claim all three points after the match looked like it was slipping away from them

The result moves City up to sixth place in the Second Division table, just five points off fourth placed Stenhousemuir who visit Glebe Park on Tuesday night in a rearranged league fixture.

Bryan Hodge was the City hero scoring a dramatic 30 yard equaliser with just seven minutes remaining and the ex Partick midfielder became the provider four minutes later when he created the opening for Rory McKenzie to slot home the winner.

City found themselves a goal down in the 33rd minute when Mark Ferry pounced to fire home the opener after David Scott, (deputising for regular keeper Craig Nelson who had picked up an injury at training on Thursday night) had failed to gather a Gary Thom cross and that was the way things stood at the interval with the Binos definitely having the better of the opening 45 minutes.

However, Brechin started the second-half in a much more positive vein and they drew level eight minutes into the restart when Stirling hero Ferry turned sinner when he inadvertently headed a Hodge corner past his own keeper.

This gave City confidence to push forward but they were shocked when the hosts regained the lead with just quarter of an hour remaining.

A Scott Davidson cross from the right was met by Paul McLean who headed past the stranded Scott into his own net.

With just fifteen minutes of the match left, even the most diehard City fans would have been hard pressed to envisage that their team would come back to win the match but that’s exactly what they did in a grandstand finish to the game.

Hodge picked up the ball just within the Stirling half with seven minutes remaining and took a couple of paces forward before unleashing a tremendous right-foot drive which soared past Callum Reidford in the Stirling goal.

City fans had hardly finished celebrating this goal when the team scored a dramatic late winner.

Hodge collected the ball in the Binos half and played a pass forward to McKenzie who outpaced Brian Allison before slotting the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

In a hard and evenly contested match, three players were booked by referee Willie Collum. John Crawley for Stirling and defenders Scot Buist and Ewan Moyes for City.

Other Results - Irn Bru 2nd Division

Airdrie United 0 Stenhousemuir 3

Emphatic Win for Warriors

Arbroath 1 Cowdenbeath 1

Honours Shared at Gayfield

Dumbarton 1 Albion Rovers 0

Sons Stay Third after Narrow Win

East Fife 4 Forfar Athletic 0

Fifers Hammer Loons