Match Report - By John Hoey

Brechin City went down to a narrow 1-0 defeat against Hamilton Accies at the ZLX Stadium in last night’s Viaplay Cup first-round fixture.

Accies dominated the opening stages with Kevin O’Hara, Stephen Hendrie and Dylan Tait all coming close but it was City who came closest to breaking the deadlock after 15 minutes when a Grady McGrath pass created an opportunity for Fraser MacLeod whose shot was tipped round the post by Accies keeper Jamie Smith.

The hosts continued to dominate proceedings and they deservedly grabbed the lead from the penalty-spot after 22 minutes when a pass from Tait created an opportunity for KEVIN O'HARA who was bundled to the ground by Hamish Thomson with the ex Alloa and Dunfermline forward stepping up to fire the spot-kick into the bottom corner of the net giving City keeper Lenny Wilson no chance.

City came more into the game immediately after the break in terms of possession but were finding it difficult to create any clear-cut chances. Accies though still had the lion’s share of pressure and they almost doubled their advantage in the 67th minute when a Lee Kilday shot was cleared off the goal line by Chris Mudie.

City hit back and a Kevin McHattie cross from the left was headed against the bar by Marc Scott. This gave City confidence and they almost grabbed the equaliser in the 76th minute when Smith did well to parry a McGrath close-range shot but despite their best efforts, they were unable to take the match to penalty-kicks.

Following the match, Manager Andy Kirk said, "I thought that we were very poor in the first-half probably the worst we’ve played for a long time. We didn’t get close to players, we got deeper as the game progressed and when we had a chance to put our foot on the ball we didn’t, we gave it away so we were really disappointed with a lot of aspects of our play."

"We spoke at half-time about a few things we needed to improve upon and it was about going out and showing confidence and self-belief and put our foot on the ball an start playing.

"We did that in the second-half so huge credit to the players for responding the way they did. The opening 45 minutes was extremely disappointing but huge credit to the players for coming out in the second-half and competing well against a very good team."

Match report courtesy of the Courier.