Brechin City cruised to an emphatic 5-1 victory over Wick Academy at Glebe Park.
The Scorres finished the game with nine men after Joe Anderson and Jack Henry both dismissed while Andrew Hardwick was shown a red card after the final whistle for dissent.
Brechin boss Andy Kirk said: “I’m really pleased.
“In the first-half we looked a wee bit leggy, maybe a yard off it and a wee bit sloppy in terms of the ball but given the really tough schedule we’ve had in the last couple of weeks, that’s understandable.
“We spoke at half-time about getting control of the game and told the players that if we could get another goal we could go on and win convincingly and so it proved.
“Once we got the second goal we scored another one shortly afterwards and we then looked a completely different team.
“We were on the front foot, we played some nice football, we created some great opportunities and scored a further two goals.
“Overall, I’m really pleased with how we performed.”
St Johnstone loanee Jordan Northcott headed City in front after nine minutes but Wick deservedly levelled the match in the 27th minute with as close-range finish from Mark Macadie.
It took City only three minutes into the second-half to regain the advantage when a Ewan Loudon free-kick cannoned into the back of the net off team-mate Hamish Thomson and shortly afterwards Marc Scott blasted home goal number three.
Wick were reduced to ten men when Jack Henry was shown a second yellow card and City then went further in front ten minutes from time with another superb finish from Scott.
The visitors then went down to ten men three minutes later when Joe Anderson was shown a red card for bringing down Julian Wade in the box with Scott stepping up to complete his hat-trick from the penalty-spot.
Our mascot yesterday was Conor Bond who was with a group of friends celebrating his stag weekend.
Many thanks for your support guys and we hope you all enjoyed your day out at Glebe Park! pic.twitter.com/YuHAmtWbNc
— Brechin City FC (@BrechinCityFC) March 6, 2022
A miserable afternoon for Wick was compounded after the final whistle had sounded when Andrew Hardwick was shown a straight red card by referee Liam Duncan for foul and abusive language.
Scorries player-boss Gary Manson was critical of referee Duncan following his side’s heavy defeat.
He said: “I thought that we shaded the first-half and were disappointed to have a goal disallowed for what I thought was quite a soft foul and that was just an insight of what was to come from the referee.
“That’s now twice we’ve had him refereeing and he seems to be just card happy.”