The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Fightback has Jackson confident of title push
Gayfield derby double helps convince striker ARBROATH 2 BRECHIN CITY 2
Andy Jackson believes Brechin City’s performance against their table-topping Angus neighbours at Gayfield on Saturday shows that the Glebe Park men are more than capable of mounting a serious promotion challenge in League One this season.
The Lichties looked to be coasting to victory after racing into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes but Jackson’s double in the first 10 minutes of the second period earned the visitors a deserved share of the points – and, with a bit of luck, they might have gone on to win the match.
He said: “In the first half we were really bad. The goals we gave Arbroath were really soft – they didn’t have to work very hard for them.
“We were angry with ourselves and the manager gave us a bit of a rollicking at half-time, which we deserved. We knew we had to up our game and I think we did that.
“Arbroath will be up there at the end of the season but today we proved we can match them so there’s no reason why we can’t be challenging for promotion.”
The Lichties were quick out of the blocks and opened the scoring within 90 seconds with Gavin Swankie floating a cross into the box for Jason Thomson to guide a header beyond Conor Brennan.
The home side extended their lead after 19 minutes, Bobby Linn calmly slotting home from 12 yards and from then until the interval the only doubt seemed to be over how many more the Lichties would score.
However, with Darren Dods’s half- time team talk ringing in their ears, the City players emerged for the second half in a transformed mood.
Callum Hendry, son of former Scotland star Colin, came on and paired up with Jackson.
The partnership paid immediate dividends as Jackson netted twice in six minutes to level the scores.
From then on the outcome could have gone either way, with Arbroath probing for a winner while City always looked dangerous on the break.
A draw was probably a fair result, as Lichties assistant manager Ian Campbell conceded.
He said: “We are disappointed to drop two points.
“We started brilliantly, got two goals and missed another four or five chances. But we came off the pace and were punished.
“Brechin came at us and scored two good goals. They were strong and organised defensively. But we let them off the hook and they deserved a draw.”