A fairly even game with possibly BC edging it until the ref made a poor decision; not sending off the EF guy for chopping King from behind with a pretty bad tackle. This would have turned the game our way however he did not. Templeman came on and EF picked up with the man himself scoring after Nelson had a great save.
To make things worse he send off Nemmo, BC, for a tackle no worse than that of the EF guy - we have started already with double standards and lack of consistancy from referees.

As an added note I did not realise that EF have gone down the road of pensioners - do they have the legs to see out the season,BC have experience of this and we found out the answer to this is no.

thought east fife were pretty poor, city dominated in the middle of the park and got to the byline on many occasions. pity we didn't have diack on from the start as thats the service we'd want to give him. not that anyone can fault king or twigg's efforts. thought nimmo was impressive again, just a bit eager to win the ball back for the sending off, it was definately a booking at least but wasn't as bad as a EF players one on king. don't know how ref can book janczyk for diving when he got to the ball first, player lunged at him and was contact... he doesn't have to jump over him

What a surprise! Better luck next year.

Possession wise it was pretty even but we had more chances, one of which we took. Of the two incidents, yellow cards would have sufficed. Bit poor for Brechin fans to dish out abuse to Linn; he got caught late for the sending off. It wasn't Bobby's fault that the ref deemed it a straight red.
A competent performance from us against a stuffy opposition. I think we'll get better as the season progresses...

Wasn't at the game but spoke to a few people that were and by all accounts City were probably the better side over the whole. Typical that Sanny came back to haunt us once again.

Would have been nice to progress but this cup offers very little in the way of financial reward so not too bothered about it. Would rather progress in the league cup against EF but unfortunately with the game being away from home I can see it being even harder to progress.

Hopefully we can get off to a good start in the league for once next Saturday.

I thought it was a dive.

Poor loosers. Brechin are a stuffy outfit and the small park closed us in a bit, fairly even up until the goal then we took control.
Was a bit far away from the sending off, but your guy certainly did a Klinsmann in the box.
Certainly more to come from the Fife.

I'm not sure why I thought I would be able get an unbiased report of the match on here.

Pretty even game with Brechin having marginally more of the pressure until the sending off.

Thought it was a bad foul but a yellow would have sufficed. If the Brechin player hadn't done a dive he would have been through on goal so I assume his yellow card was for stupidty!

We didn't play esecially well - bit of a contrast to the Hamilton match - but surely we will do better as the season progresses.

Totally agree Diack should have played

i suggest with Twigg as Diack links play well and i would like to see them play together.
Also think Diack would have troubled East Fife more phsically than King was able to.

Sore loosers . Yeh fair enough you had the ball a tad more, but to dish out abuse to linn wasn't needed. What did he do wrong? Also, you never done nothing with the possesion, hitting the bar, i don't remember anything else?

Good perfromance from City.

The game hinged on 2 decisions: 1. was it a dive? - I was too far away to tell, and 2. - the red card for Nimmo - should have been a Yellow for a silly tackle, no more. After the sending off, the game fizzled out.

I have high hopes for the season ahead after this performance against the "odds-on favourites" for the title. I was impressed by Twigg (thought he held the ball up well) and Nimmo (won most in the air and passed sensibly).

As soon as Sanny came on I knew he would score against us - he always does.

I thought it was a faurly even gvame with us just eding it. The supposed penalty was never a penalty and Nimmo didn;t deserve to get snet off but we were still the better team,

The most impressive thing was that we played well within ourselves but still won fairly comfrotablbely.

I was sitting near the EF director's box, at one point, the Brechin full back passed the ball back to the goalie Nelson and the goalie kicked it up the park. Cue an EF director yelling in an aggrieved voice... "that wiz a passback" . Yes? And?

Thought the result was fair. You just knew Templeman was going to score when he came on. Brechin's main problem was the lack of link-up between midfield and their forwards with too many over-hit forward balls that even Linford Christie on speed wouldn't have caught. Byers was poor today and Charlie King didn't get into the game.

Nice to have some Glebe lentil soup again though.

Yes it was a dive, and a pretty poor one at that! Yes it should only have been a Yellow for Nimmo but at least the lad showed some spirit in an otherwise lacklustre game. I think every City fan knew Sanny would come on and score! And after he had scored I reckon most of us knew he had just scored the winner!

Sorry to say this but Brechin have alway's been slow starter's in the league, so enjoy your victory coz it'll be short lived.

This was the Challenge Cup though.

He's right though, no matter what competition, but particularly the league, we are always slow starters. We didn't get our first win until mid-October last year but we pretty much pissed over most teams after that which saw us not only pull away from the relegation scrap, but towards the play-offs.

Why are you sorry? I doubt either side will have a crushing dominance over eachother in the 12,752 games we have to play against Brechin this season. It's good to be going through to the next round in the cup though, hopefully we can get a repeat result in the league cup.

Anything's possible mate, i was a wee bit shellshocked when i saw the result. I think you'll have a harder game next time, this isn't old fashioned EF hating talk but Brechin have some really good experienced players at this level. When Brechin start playing as a team they can piss on every team ourselves included, i think they'll miss Callaghan and Walker though.

Callaghan left in January and we nearly got to the playoffs anyway. I can't see where he would get a game in our current squad.

Walker was only backup anyway - White and Ward are the two first choices, and from what I've seen of Seeley, he looks like he's as good as Walker, if not better.

We only had 8 points at the start of December. We only started to play better football and start dominating games in December. That is when we got to about 26 points or somthing like that.

I agree Seeley will cover the central position. Still a bit worried about left back. I assume Canning is going to cover in there (when fit) and every other position also.

Aye, did your good spell not basically start after you knocked us out the cup? I remember thinking that result wasn't so bad after Brechin ripped up the league for a few months.

But seriously why would last season have any bearing on this season? We had a mid-season collapse two years ago and lots of people said it would happen again, it didn't.

I do think Brechin are a good team and really wouldn't be surprised if they made the play-offs but I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be finishing above them this season although they'll probably say the same thing.

What's wrong with Dyer? From what I've heard, everyone's been really impressed with him so far in pre-season.

Nothing Dyer has been great so far, I was was talking about if he gets injured or suspended.

Im friends with Ian Nimmo, interested to know your thoughts on him. Was up at the Aberdeen friendly thought he done ok SPL opposition, as did the whole team

seems decent enough, very composed on the ball and good range of passing. also gets stuck in when not in possession and overall seems commited to the team. hes young and this should probably just be a stepping stone to bigger and better things barring injury, but very happy to have him with us and if he continues the way he has started he will play a big part in our season.

Thats good to hear, he had a hard time of it at Ipswich, Broke his twice in consecutive years but still managed to play a few reserve games. He's a good lad and a confident player who im sure will do well up there. Hopefully be up a few times to watch him play

I'd just like to echo ando's thoughts on Nimmo. Seems to have been one of our best players pre-season, and he looks like a real find by O'Neill, even if Magilton probably had a bit of help on this one.

I think he'll turn a few heads this season.

Kevin McAllister is pals with his dad and was trying to convince the O'neill to have a look, so i done a CV for him and sent it to the club and it all kinda went from there. Im sure he will do well, and like i said ill be up to see him a few times this season and maybe even manage a couple of pints with you boys before the matches

I wouldn't bet on him playing week in week out. He deserves to play as he has been good. Just thinking back to last season and the AGM where it seems perferctly clear that the younger players in our squad are referred to as 'youngsters' and we can't expect them to play every week. If there good enough there old enough.

Not after a finder's fee are you?

a) How many 'youngsters' do we have?
If this is about Calum Smith PLEASE let it go.... and it was a different situation
c) He won't play every week, that is probably guaranteed by the fact we have 7 midfielders competing for 4 places. Its a team game and as long as he continues the same commitment as he has done in preseason he will play a big part in our season, and for the record i think he will play most weeks.

Not particulary about Calum Smith but certainly was part of the point I was trying to make. How was it a different situation? We had a player that was scoring goals then benched and players playing up front who weren't scoring. I have no doubt Nimmo will play a part in our season and he certainly has the technical ability, I just wonder sometimes whats going on and what will happen when everyone is fit . Who would you play from the 7 midfielders (Nimmo, Byers, Smith, Fusco, Jancyk, Nelson, Canning) or 8 if you include King. We also had young Chris Hughes who I thought looked worth a chance in the games he played.

Just for the record I hope both Nimmo and Calum Smith play most weeks because they certainly inject a bit of energy into the team and the work rate is exceptional.

tempted to say the first 4 you mentioned, but janczyk has looked much sharper and fitter this preseason and is a cert to keep his place as long as he keeps that form up.
i think calum smith should play more often, but from the bench... i think diack and twigg will make a good partnership (which may mean king will play midfield again...)
but luckily i don't have to pick the team

Nimmo was on trial at Stirling last summer. Played one friendly match. Did nothing and then got injured.

I reckon we'll be starting with Smith, Janczyk, Nimmo and Byers. Canning will be RB I assume, with Fusco and Nelson warming the bench.

It's good we've got such a high standard of competition for places in midfield, with only really Smith with a nailed on start every week.

I think because of this, King will be playing up front, possibly with Diack, maybe Twigg. Calum Smith seemed to do well when he came on as a sub against tiring legs, so I think he'll be used in this role more this season to get him a wee bit more experience.

Dyer, Ward and White in defence along with Canning/Walker/Murie at RB, and Seeley covering is also a strong backline.

Spoke to Ian last night, he had signed a 1 year contract but has now been offered an extra year, which he is happy to sign

Great news!!!
Although don't think he'll be with us too long barring injury as from what ive seen he looks real class