City rue missed chances after Peterhead stalemate

Brechin manager Darren Dods was left regretting some missed chances as his side drew 0-0 with Peterhead in their opening Betfred Cup match and ended up missing out on thebonuspointafterdefeat in a penalty shoot-out.

Dods said: “We had some great chances in the first half when we opened them up and we should have scored when Calum Tapping took an extra touch.

“It would have been the icing on the cake to win the shoot-out.

“A great save by Conor Brennan put us in a position to win it, but Paul McLean put his kick wide. A good save by Greg Fleming from (Giuliana) Morena then won it for them.

“We lacked a bit of sharpness, but we will try to bounce back at Stirling on Tuesday.

“It is another game under our belts and we will look to add a couple to our squad before the league season starts. There is a shortage of players out there and they go to the higher bidders.

“Andy Jackson is four weeks away from a return. He has been out for a long time and it will be a real bonus if we can get him back not long into the season.”

Brechin had the early chances and on two minutes, a Tapping freekick was pushed away by Fleming.

On 28 minutes a Dene Shields header was saved by Fleming. From the resulting corner, Shields had a shot cleared off the line by Jamie Stevenson.

Tapping then missed a great chance when both he and Kalvin Orsi elected to pass rather than shoot when in good position.

Two minutes from the break, a Sean Burns freekick clipped the top of the Peterhead crossbar.

Brechin had the best of the chances and on 76 minutes a Shields header was tipped over by Fleming.

Brennan tipped a Willie Gibson penalty on to the post to make it advantage Brechin in the shoot-out, but McLean immediately shot wide.

Morena had the first sudden-death penalty tipped on to the bar by Fleming, leaving Jason Brown to keep his cool to win it.