Brechin City manager Andy Kirk was far from happy despite his side defeating Lossiemouth 3-0 at Glebe Park to go top of the table and extend their winning run to eight matches.
All of City’s goals came in a scintillating opening 45 minutes but they looked a pale shadow of that side in a disappointing second half.
Afterwards Kirk was scathing about his side’s second half performance.
“I find our performance hard to sum up in words,” he said.
“How we can go from our first half display to our second-half performance is baffling.
“The second-half was a disgrace all over the pitch. We were too slow, nobody was taking responsibility, not playing forward and not doing anything like we did in the first-half and it’s hard to figure out what the cause of it was.
“We had to build on that first-half performance after the break and put Lossiemouth under real pressure but we completely failed to do so.
“It’s another three points, a clean sheet and we’re top of the table but our second-half display has left a real sour note.”
First half strikes make the difference
Grady McGrath fired home the opening goal after twelve minutes and Anthony McDonald doubled City’s lead with a close-range finish twelve minutes later.
Fraser Macleod added a third goal on the half-hour mark, however, the Coasters steadied the ship after the break and although they never really threatened the City goal they prevented the hosts from adding to their first-half tally.
30’ GOOOAAALLL CITY! pic.twitter.com/0tgSKswiY4
— Brechin City FC (@BrechinCityFC) August 27, 2022
Both sides played out the closing stages with ten men after City’s Seth Patrick and Lossie’s Ryan Stuart both received second yellow cards in separate incidents.
Coasters boss Joe Russell said: “It was a game of two halves. We showed them too much respect and stood off them too much in the first-half.
“However, we managed to get a lot closer to them in the second half and prevented them from playing the type of football they like to play which was pleasing but the damage was all done in the opening 45 minutes and we couldn’t recover from that.”
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Banks o’ Dee 2-1 Clachnacuddin
Banks o’ Dee manager Jamie Watt thanked returning goalkeeper Andy Shearer for helping them to a 2-1 win against Clachnacuddin at Spain Park.
Dee were 2-0 up at half-time before Clach threatened to come back in the second period with Shearer making a late stop to repel a Gary Warren header.
The custodian left Dee for Bridge of Don Thistle last year but is now unattached and with Ross Salmon nursing an injury Watt drafted him in.
He said: “Ross has had a couple of niggles so I phoned Andy last weekend and he was happy to come in and help.
“With Ross carrying a bit of injury it was good to bring Andy in.
“He dealt with everything he had to and made an important save from a Gary Warren header late on.
“We’ve played a lot better and dropped points so it was good to dig in and pick up a win when not at our best.”
Banks o’ Dee opened the scoring a couple of minutes before half-time courtesy of Neil Gauld’s header after Kane Winton flicked on Marc Young’s long throw.
Before the half-time whistle Mark Gilmour broke through and added a second with a low shot.
After the interval Clach responded with a fine passing move ending in Connor Bunce finishing from the edge of the area.
But the Lilywhites couldn’t bag an equaliser and boss Jordan MacDonald said: “Losing two goals in quick succession hindered us.
“But the response in the second half was excellent, we dominated the second half and I felt we deserved more.”