The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Red card lets Sons hit back to stun City
Brechin City are still looking for their first win of the Championship campaign after Saturday’s defeat away to Dumbarton at the newly-named YOUR Radio-103FM Stadium.
City led from the first minute through a Jordan Sinclair strike and looked to be heading for their first three points of the season but Aron Lynas’s red card in the 71st minute following a tackle on Sons David Wilson completely changed the complexion of the game.
Two late goals from Mark Stewart and Dimitris Froxylias wrapped up the first victory of the season for Stephen Aitken’s men.
It was certainly a very harsh outcome from City’s point of view as bitterly disappointed boss Darren Dods conceded.
“I think that was probably the best 45 minutes we’ve played this season,” he said.
“We did really well in the first half, starting on the front foot, forcing Dumbarton back and we got a really good goal early on and carved them open again a few minutes later when Connor McLennan had a shot cleared off the line.
“We felt we were in control when half-time came.
“Even in the second half, when Dumbarton put us under a wee bit of pressure, we were still showing that we were a threat on the break but then the sending-off came which changed the whole game.
“At the time we were set up well but losing that player gave Dumbarton the opportunity to put us under greater pressure.
“They put more balls into the box and their substitute Christian Nade proved to be a real handful four our defenders and he laid the ball on for Mark Stewart for Dumbarton’s equaliser.
“We then made what was our only mistake of the match for which we were severely punished leading to Dumbarton’s winner.”
“I’m really disappointed because I thought that up until the sending-off we had performed really well.
“The attitude and effort the players had put in was brilliant considering how difficult a place this is to pick up points.
City started really strongly and they grabbed the opening goal with just over a minute played.
Willie Dyer slipped the ball to Sinclair who took a couple of touches before drilling home .
It should have been 2-0 for City on the quarter-hour mark when Kalvin Orsi laid the ball on for McLennan whose shot was cleared off the line by Chris McLaughlin.
Dumbarton upped the pressure after the break but City were coping well until Lynas was sent off for a challenge on Wilson and that proved to be the turning point as Stewart and Froxylias scored the two late goals to secure the points for the Sons.