Dods taking heart from performance

FALKIRK 2 BRECHIN CITY 0

Brechin City were knocked out of the Betfred Cup after a 2-0 defeat from Falkirk, who were also eliminated from the tournament despite their victory.

Two goals within four minutes early in the second-half, from Luca Gasparotto and Nathan Austin, sealed City’s fate.

Until that point the visitors, despite being rarely seen as an attacking force, had successfully thwarted the Bairns. Although having the lion’s share of pressure and possession, Falkirk had rarely troubled Graeme Smith in the City goal.

Manager Darren Dods was reasonably happy with his team’s performance at the end of the 90 minutes despite their defeat.

“We set out with a game plan to try and frustrate Falkirk and hit them on the break, and it worked very well up until Falkirk’s two goals early in the second-half,” he said.

“We then had to push forward after going behind and we created one or two half-chances late on in the game, with Ross Caldwell unlucky to hit the bar.

“There’s no doubt that Tuesday night’s exertions against St Johnstone took their toll on the players but, all in all, I was reasonably happy with the performance and we’ll now get a couple of training sessions under our belt before looking forward to a home match against Stenhousemuir next Saturday to open our league programme.”

Despite dominating the opening 45 minutes, the Bairns failed to create anything really clear-cut in front of goal, but they came out for the secondhalf in determined fashion and scored two goals within four minutes to put the match out of City’s reach.

Gasparotto grabbed the opener from close-range four minutes into the second-half, and it was 2-0 four minutes later when Austin headed home a cross from the left.

City tried to hit back and substitute Ross Caldwell hit the bar late on, but Peter Houston’s men ran out deserved winners.

Darren Dods said the match against St Johnstone had taken a toll.