Red cards add to long list of woes for Brechin

FALKIRK 3 BRECHIN CITY 0

The end of the season can’t come soon enough for long-suffering Brechin after another miserable afternoon, this time at Falkirk.

Finally consigned to relegation last weekend, there was no sympathy from referee Stephen Finnie who brandished two straight red cards in a five-minute spell just before half-time.

With the visitors already trailing by two goals, Sean Crighton thundered into a tackle with Alex Jakubiak. The defender seemed to win the ball but Finnie flashed the red card on 41 minutes.

If the first sending-off was harsh, the second left Brechin boss Darren Dods and his players dumbfounded. Paul McLean tripped the breaking Jakubiak on the halfway line and it looked a straightforward booking until Finnie showed red again.

City’s Callum Tapping said: “Sean has just gone in aggressively and has won the ball but you can understand why the ref has given it. The second one, I was really surprised it was a red because it only looked like a yellow.”

Brechin, though, had been fortunate not to lose goalkeeper Graeme Smith after only 11 minutes. Andrew Nelson got in behind City’s defence and poked the ball beyond Smith who tripped the Falkirk player.

However, the referee deemed there to be covering defenders and only booked the experienced keeper.

Falkirk opened the scoring with a brilliant individual goal from captain Aaron Muirhead after a neat one-two with Tom Robson.

Craig Sibbald slotted home Louis Longridge’s cutback to double their advantage just before the halfhour.

The second half was played out in bizarre fashion, almost like a training game with Brechin camped deep in their own half with eight men behind the ball.

It was a case of damage limitation with nine-man Brechin conceding just one more to Andrew Robson’s strike on 60 minutes.

Due to injuries and suspensions, boss Dodds revealed he may have to play at Inverness tomorrow and Tapping conceded that sums up life as a part-time side, saying: “He might have to get stripped because we are struggling for boys at the back.

“It’s difficult being part-time, we don’t get the recovery or the training that the full-time boys receive but that isn’t an excuse – it’s just reality.”