A new chapter begins for City tomorrow evening as Andy Kirk’s side travel to Ochilview Park to face East Stirlingshire in their opening Lowland League East fixture of the 2026/27 campaign.
Following a tough Premier Sports up campaign, City will be eager to make a positive start in their new division against the former SPFL outfit. The sides have not met competitively for 24 years, with the last encounter coming during Brechin’s Scottish Third Division title-winning campaign of 2001/02.
TEAM NEWS
City unfortunately do not have their troubles to seek with Kyle Bell likely to be missing long-term alongside Spencer Moreland and Kieran Inglis, whilst Adam Hutchinson and Corey Kirk are likely to be sidelined for 2-3 weeks. Manager Andy Kirk is hopeful that captain Euan Spark will be fit after missing Saturday’s match with an ankle injury whilst one or two new additions to the squad could be a possibility.
MANAGERS COMMENTS
Reflecting on the final Premier Sports Cup fixture against Forfar Athletic at the weekend, Andy Kirk commented, “We’d have liked to have taken something from the game to reward the players for their efforts during the group but it feels like so much is going against us at the minute. We should have had a penalty and that may have given us the boost in the game. Kyle Bell came off injured and then we concede a penalty and it was bad defending for their second goal.
“After that we got ourselves going but again in the second half felt there were a couple of things that went against us. Ross Milne was brought down right on the edge of the box and his next thought is a shot at goal and I’m questioning whether that should be more than a yellow card. We then lose Hutch to injury but we get a goal only to concede straight away where we don’t pick the second ball up in the middle of the pitch and then the goalkeeper makes a mistake.
“It’s been a difficult few weeks for us results wise but also losing the number of players we have to injury. We have to take the positives though and these games have tested us and we’ve had to work hard in them so in that sense you’d hope that in terms of fitness levels that’ll benefit us in the long term.“
Looking ahead to the opening league fixture tomorrow night, he added, “We’re a fixture behind with everyone else playing at the weekend but it’s exciting in the sense that it’s a new league, new teams and new grounds to visit and we just need to go there and put in a good performance. The players are due a rub of the green and hopefully tomorrow night can bring that for us and lift the spirits a bit.”
MATCH OFFICIALS
Tomorrow’s match referee is Robert Bowie, assisted by Richard Macartney and Craig Sneddon.
ADMISSION INFORMATION
Tomorrow’s match at Ochilview Park kicks off at 7:45pm. Admission prices are £12 for adults, £8 for concessions and free for U14’s when accompanied by a paying adult. Cash and card are accepted at the turnstiles or you can purchase digital Tickets via Fanbase HERE.
LAST TIME OUT
Whilst the Lowland League East started at the weekend, City were still in Premier Sports Cup action as they went down 3-1 to near neighbours Forfar Athletic. A quickfire double from the hosts just after the hour mark had City behind at the break, although Lewis Martin reduced the deficit 6 minutes from time with a goal on his 100th appearance for the Club. City’s hopes of getting back into the game were quickly dashed as Martin Rennies added a 3rd for the Loons two minutes later.
East Stirlingshire opened up their Lowland League East campaign with a fine 2-1 win over recently-promoted Hill of Beath away from home. Second half goals from Michael Weir and Ryan Duncan had the Shire two goals to the good before Dan Watt pulled a goal back for the hosts 14 minutes from time.
PREVIOUS MEETING
East Stirlingshire 2-0 Brechin City – 6th April 2002
You have to go back over 24 years for the last competitive meeting between the sides as the Shire defeated City at Firs Park, although this would prove to be just a blip for Dick Campbell’s side who had already clinched the Third Division Championship against Peterhead the week prior.
