Jackson on target as Brechin secure three vital points

AIRDRIEONIANS 0 BRECHIN CITY 1

Brechin City came back from Airdrie with an invaluable three points following their 1-0 victory over the Diamonds.

The only goal of the match came after just 16 minutes when striker Andy Jackson intercepted a slack passback from home defender Grant Gallagher and coolly slotted the ball past David Hutton in the Diamonds goal.

City were then on the back foot for the remainder of the half and had to thank keeper Paddy O’Neil for keeping them ahead at the interval after he brought off brilliant saves to deny Josh Campbell (twice), Leighton McIntosh and Declan Glass.

The same pattern continued after the break with the home side applying almost continuous pressure.

Darryl Duffy scored a goal which was disallowed for offside after 62 minutes and Airdrie almost levelled things again deep into stoppage time when a 30-yard thunderbolt from Ryan Conroy came crashing back off the bar, but City held on for an absolutely vital three points.

The victory moved City up to seventh in the League One table and manager Barry Smith was delighted with how each member of his side had acquitted themselves.

“We had to be resilient today,” he said.

“We knew that we would have to defend a lot and we worked hard throughout the week on that aspect of our game, but the whole team worked really hard and in the second half Airdrie didn’t really create any clear-cut chances, their only opportunity coming from a shot from distance which struck the bar.

“That was an indication as to how well we defended as a team from Andy Jackson up top to the middle five and the back four.

“We won’t get carried away by this result however.

“There’s a lot of games to go between now and the end of the season with another very tough game against Stranraer coming up next Saturday.”

Andy Jackson was on target for Brechin.