Brechin 3 Saints 2
Team : Cuthbert, Webb, Forsyth, McMmanus, Hannah,
Maxwell, Stevenson, Bernard, Moore, McConalogue, Hardy
Subs : Nelson, Hay, Foxy, Moon, Marshall, Fraser
Back to Glebe Park it was today and an opponent that had already gubbed Scumdee and narrowly lost out to Aberdeen this week. And courtesy of rwo dodgy refereeing decisions late in the game, Saints were added to the list of scalps - not that John Connolly was going to take that lying down with a one-man pitch invasion at the final whistle to tell the referee exactly what he thought of his performance. Luckily, Assistant Jim (as he is now known) eventually hauled the Saints manager off.
For Saints it was still a 4-4-2 with the defence reshaped. Webb moved to right-back in place of the injured Baxter whilst Hannah returned to the centre of the back four alongside "Daddy" Maxwell, with Flash starting at left-back. Steven McManus partnered Bernard in the middle and up front Moore was accompanied by McConalogue. We started brightly enough and the first minute saw Moore lay the ball off to McConalogue who set up Lee Hardy coming through from the left but the winger was barged off the ball. City had their first attack three minutes later when a dangerous cross was sent over from the right but was missed by everyone in the area. A minute after that, the action was back at the other end as Moore rode a couple of tackles before firing in a shot that was held. McConalogue had a header saved after he got onto the end of a Sean Webb cross. Then the striker set up Ryan who laid the ball off to Lee on the wing but he screwed his shot wide.
Brechin were struck a blow when Shaun Dennis went off after 17 minutes as the home defence reorganised. For their part, Saints seems to be taking the casual approach again with a lot of stray passes and poor positioning. But in the 22nd minute we took the lead with a simple goal. Hardy forced a corner and took it himself played a short one to Ryan who sent the ball over to the back post. McConalogue was there to send it back over the keeper for the Head of Moore to stick it into the net to make it 1-0.
Saints had a spell of good pressure after that and Moore had a good shot saved in the 26th minute. Hardy was next to try his luck but his cross was cut out. Then after Stevenson was awarded a dodgy freekick on the half-hour mark, Lee Hardy tried for a repeat of his goal at Forfar but his curving shot went inches wide. And then Moore managed to get on the end of a Forsyth cross but his header was off-target.
Unfortunately a few minutes later we were punished for these misses as Brechin broke down the right. Eventually they got a simple cross in and Walker was there unmarked for a simple finish - God only knows where Hannah and Maxwell were. It was about this time that the referee, resplendent in his dayglo yellow strip, began to get in on the action with some strange decisions. We had a decent penalty claim turned down two minutes from the break when Moore was flattened in the area, and the half rounded off with McConalogue having a couple of shots.
For the most part, the second 45 was an even affair with little in the way of real action. There were no changes to the lineups and no sign of the Saints players getting a bollocking, as the home side threatened first with a Walker header that the Cat easily held. The game settled into a scrappy mess with neither side really threatening.
The hour mark saw John Connolly decide to shake things up and McConalogue was replaced by Colin Marshall who went to the right wing with Ryan going up front. Within a couple of minutes Swampy had a great run to win a corner which was held. Foxy came on for the impressive McManus and within a minute he played a lovely through ball for Ryan who elected to shoot despite having Swampy free to his right -needless to say the shot was saved. But in 72 minutes, we regained the lead when after some good pressure the ball went to Hardy wide left. He cut inside the defender, and played a low ball into the area for Moore. His first shot was saved by the keeper but he failed to hold onto the ball leaving a simple finish for Moore to make it 2-1. Saints had a few more chances but seemed to ease up.
Chippy Fraser came on for Moore with 12 minutes to go. He went to the left wing as Hardy moved up front alongside Ryan. Hardy had another decent freekick blocked by a Brechin wall after about the last decision of the day for Saints by Dayglo-man. And with seven minutes to go, the Saints fans, players and officials were up in arms. A Brechin break down the left saw them move into the box only for Forsyth put in an excellent tackle to win the ball despite picking up an ankle knock in the process. But that wasn't enough for Dayglo-Ref and he pointed to the spot indicating a shirt-tug by the Saints defender. Plenty of protests on and off the pitch with the end result being a yellow card for the Cat. As for the penalty Ritchie made no mistake sending Cuthbert the wrong way to make it 2-2.
Saints tried to get back on track but Bernard and Fraser's combined move to set up Ryan was just missed. Then two minutes from time Charlie King broke through the middle but Cuthbert reacted quickly enough to come out and block the shot. But well into injury-time Brechin sneaked a winner again under dubious circumstances. The attack was built down the left but as Maxwell challenged he was blatantly flattened. The cross went over amd Ritchie's header beat the Cat to make it 3-2 - and all that was left was the final whistle and Connolly's pitch invasion.
Again the overall performance by Saints was okay but nothing more. Moore, who reminds me more and more of a 1990-era Roddy in his style and approach, looks like an excellent acquisition. Hardy had a decent game as did Hannah, McManus and McConalogue. But we still looked disjointed at times and lost some poor goals. Even so, MoM for me goes to Forsyth who had a good solid game at the back and seems to have carried on his good form from the end of last season.
Saints are still looking a better side but perhaps we need that competitive edge to a game now - at least there are still a couple of weeks to iron out the problems.