City narrow the gap at league’s basement

BRECHIN CITY 2 COWDENBEATH 1

Brechin City narrowed the gap at the bottom of the League Two table to just a couple of points following a deserved 2-1 victory over Cowdenbeath at Glebe Park.

Birthday boy Olly Hamilton was the hero bagging a double to celebrate his 18th in style.

It was a win which delighted manager Mark Wilson who felt his side were well worth three points.

“I felt that it was a really good performance from the team today, probably one of the best since I’ve been here,” he said.

“Cowdenbeath had spells in the game but I felt that we were pretty dominant overall. Our front players and our pace on the wings caused them problems but we also defended very well and over the piece I thought that we fully deserved our victory.”

City had strong claims for a penalty dismissed by referee Craig Napier after just four minutes when Kieran Inglis was upended in the box and the visitors passed up a glorious opportunity to grab the lead shortly afterwards when Kris Renton fired wide of the target with the goal at his mercy.

They were made to pay for that missed opportunity in the 16th minute when Olly Hamilton slotted the ball home finishing off a great three-man move involving Sean

Mcintosh, Ryan Mccord and Paul Allan and the on-loan St Johnstone youngster was on the mark again 10 minutes before half-time when he blasted a Paul Mcmanus cross into the roof of the net.

The second half was evenly balanced and although the Blue Brazil pulled a goal back deep into stoppage time with a close-range Robbie Buchanan finish it was too little too late.

The drama wasn’t over, however, with City’s Dougie Hill and Kris Renton for the visitors both being ordered off in separate incidents by referee Napier who had incurred the wrath of both sets of supporters with some inexplicable decisions.

Cowdenbeath boss Gary Bollan was extremely disappointed with his side’s performance and didn’t mince his words at the final whistle.

“I’m massively disappointed because we’re much better than that,” he said.

“We left ourselves a mountain to climb after our first-half performance when we’d too many players who weren’t performing to the standard they’re capable of.

“We were better in the second half when we showed a bit of hunger and desire that we didn’t show in the opening 45 minutes but we needed to show that from the start of the game.

“It’s bitterly disappointing because we’re much better than we showed today.”

Picture: Paul Reid. Olly Hamilton celebrates scoring his first goal for Brechin on Saturday.