Here’s hoping winless Brechin raise a glass to victory on final day

THERE are plenty of teams who drive their fans to drink but not many of them offer to pay for the round.

Good old Brechin. There are long-suffering punters and then there’s the Glebe Park faithful. It’s D-Day for the Championship strugglers on Saturday but at least their club is offering them a stiff half to get through it.

Brechin have slashed the costs for their final league match against Queen of the South and offering punters a free pint in the bar before the game as a reward for their backing during this most miserable of seasons.

This is it. The last game of a wretched campaign and one final chance to avoid becoming one of the most unwanted pub quiz questions of all time.

Name the senior side to have gone through an entire league season without registering a single win? Ouch. This is going to hurt.

That’s why it’s not just the fans who should be behind City this weekend. It’s the underdog story of the year.

The Championship whipping boys with one last shot at redemption. You’d need to have a swinging brick in the place where your heart’s meant to be if you don’t want to them to win this weekend.

It’s not like Queens have much to play for. Sure, they could pip Morton to sixth and make a few extra quid but aside from the dough there’s hee haw stake.

The Doonhamers will be heading for the beach but Brechin’s squad will be going into hiding if they unthinkable happens.

It’s hard not to feel sorry for them. Boss Darren Dods was bang on when he said it was bows and arrows against machine guns for his side in this division.

The likes of St Mirren, Dundee United and Falkirk supermarkets up against Del Boy’s stall. This is where Scottish football’s wacky two-tier set-up is witnessed in brutal reality.

The part-timers have no chance when they hit the Championship. We see it every year – teams will romp it in League One and then come a cropper at the next level up.

Dumbarton have made a better fist of it than most but even they are now destined for a relegation play-off.

We don’t need to dig out some secret formula to work out it’s tougher for part-timers to go up against full-time pros.

Incredibly, it turns out guys who train every day are a wee bit better than those who do a proper day’s graft before they dig out the bibs and cones.

The likes of Raith Rovers and Ayr have the structure and resources to make more of a go of it but the rest of the parttimers will always be in for nothing but punishment.

It’s probably why we should have a proper SPFL with only full-time teams but that’s an age-old argument for another day.

Brechin fans have earned their free swally this weekend. Let’s just hope they are not drowning their sorrows on Saturday night. OUR TOP WRITERS GIVE THEIR FEARLESS VERDICTS EVERY DAY IN RECORD SPORT HE has recreated Shunsuke Nakamura’s rocket against Rangers a thousand times down the park but Kieran Tierney would love to create his own moment of Old Firm magic.

The Celtic youngster grew up idolising the Japanese wizard and even managed to land a pair of boots from his idol when he was just a kid at Parkhead.

But it was Nakamura’s sensational swerving 30-yard wonder strike against Gers in 2008 that sticks in his mind when it comes to this fixture.

Tierney is capable of scoring the odd stunner himself and admits he’d be in dreamland if he could hit the net as Celts look to seal the Premiership title against their rivals on Sunday.

The PFA Young Player of the Year candidate, who won Celtic’s Goal of the Season award for his own blistering strike against Kilmarnock back in August, said: “My first Rangers game is a bit of a blur because I was so young.

“But I have great memories of Nakamura scoring that brilliant goal from about 30 yards and things like that. I’m not sure if that was my first game – but it won’t be far away.

“That Nakamura effort was the kind of goal you try to score up the park when you’re small but you don’t succeed.

We see it every year – teams romp League One then come a cropper at the next level

“You could try it a thousand times – but a goal like that will never be repeated. It was such a big game as well.”

Tierney tried to suggest a goal against Rangers would be on a par with strikes against any other side in Scotland but no one was buying it.

Even the Hoops ace struggled to suppress a smile when he said it but he was in no doubt it would be something special to stick one in the net when the stakes are so high.

Tierney said: “I just love scoring goals for Celtic and when I do I will celebrate the same against anybody.

“I just love the chance to celebrate with our fans. We can clinch the league in front of our own fans on Sunday and it would be brilliant to score.”

Tierney doesn’t need any reminders of the magnitude of Sunday’s showdown, although he can be forgiven for having little memory of a particularly momentous occasion almost two decades ago.

He was just a toddler the last time the Glasgow giants squared up in a title clincher at Parkhead, back in the infamous shame game of 1999.

But he is well aware of what is at stake and knows it doesn’t get much bigger than an Old Firm encounter where claiming the title – the Hoops’ seventh in