Tapping fires home late winner for Brechin

STIRLING ALBION 1 BRECHIN CITY 2

Brechin City boss Darren Dods was delighted with his side’s 2-1 Betfed Cup victory over Stirling Albion at Forthbank

“This is always a tough place to come to as we found last season so I was really pleased to come away with all three points,” he said.

“We played really well in the first-half and although Stirling came back at us after the break I thought that our fitness came through in the end when we created more chances.”

Brechin dominated the opening stages of the match and they deservedly grabbed the lead in the 16th minute when Paul McLean sent a long pass forward to Boris Melingui who back-headed the ball past advancing Stirling keeper Cammie Binnie who was well off his line.

The Binos missed a glorious opportunity to draw level seven minutes later when Mark Stewart completely fluffed a header with the ball trundling past the post but the ex-Raith striker made amends before the break when he prodded a Peter MacDonald cross past City keeper Conor Brennan.

Stirling kept up the pressure at the beginning of the second half with a MacDonald close-range header deflected for a corner by McLean but City hit back in the 62nd minute when Dene Shields played in Callum Tapping but the midfielder delayed too long and the chance was lost.

The hosts then passed up a glorious chance to go 2-1 up six minutes later when a superb pass from Kevin Fell gave Stewart an opportunity but Brennan blocked the striker’s shot.

City again came back and a Jordan Sinclair drive looked a goal all the way but Binnie somehow managed to stick out a hand and deflect it for a corner.

City made the vital breakthrough with six minutes left when Tapping fired home a superb right-foot drive.

Callum Tapping.