The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dods in no mood for excuses as City stay winless
Brechin City are still looking for their first league win of the season after slipping to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Livingston on Saturday.
The award of a 13th minute penalty to the visitors after the referee decided Connor McLennan had fouled Jackson Longridge proved pivotal, but Brechin manager Darren Dods was in no mood to look for excuses.
Dods said: “It didn’t look much of a penalty and you could see by the reaction of my players that they didn’t think it was.
“The guy took a touch and went down and the referee gave it.
“It was then an individual error that gave them their second goal.
“Livingston are hard to break down, although Euan Smith probably had our best chance late on. That is the first time this season that we have contained the Livingston threat from set-pieces and long throw-ins.
“They are a big unit and have scored goals against bigger clubs than us. We defended well, although I would have liked to have created more.”
Andy Jackson went down in the Livingston box 11 minutes after the Livingston penalty, but the referee refused to even up the awards.
Dods added: “Andy was knocked over. It didn’t look much but then theirs didn’t look much either. The referee makes his decisions and we have to live with them.”
Brechin had a chance in the opening minute when McLennan ran clear on the right and shot at Neil Alexander.
Craig Halkett took full advantage of the penalty award when he shot low past Graeme Smith, then on 28 minutes Paul McLean had the ball in the net for Brechin but the flag was already up for offside.
On 35 minutes a cross from Jordan Sinclair was tipped on to the bar and over by Alexander.
Livingston made it 2-0 on 70 minutes when an uncharacteristic mistake by Aron Lynas let Scott Robinson run clear to score.
Brechin battled to the end and on 83 minutes, Calum Tapping curled a shot just wide.
In stoppage-time, Smith missed a sitter when he put the ball wide from six yards from a Kalvin Orsi cross.