Despite a valiant display from Lossiemouth, Brechin City advanced to the semi-finals of the GPH Builders Merchants Highland League Cup with a 2-0 victory over the home side with a goal in each half from Grady McGrath and Fraser McLeod.
Brechin were made to work hard by Lossie throughout the 90 minutes and after surviving a second minute scare when Fraser Forbes looked to have had his jersey pulled on the edge of the box they eventually broke the deadlock a minute from the break.
MacLeod did the spadework for McGrath who fired a fine angled drive beyond Logan Ross.
Marc Scott should have increased City’s lead early in the second half but shot wide from close range but they grabbed the decisive second goal when MacLeod, who shone throughout the match, made space in the box to control a cross and roll the ball into the bottom corner from eight yards after 63 minutes.
FULL TIME | Lossiemouth 0-2 Brechin City
City cruised into the semi finals of the Highland League Cup with a routine win over Lossiemouth this afternoon. Grady McGrath and Fraser MacLeod both on target for City. pic.twitter.com/pSLKxxyE6E
— Brechin City FC (@BrechinCityFC) December 3, 2022
Brechin manager Andy Kirk was pleased with his team’s display, especially with a number of players unavailable.
He said: “We managed to get the lead before half time and we knew Lossie would come out in the second half and have a go because it was a cup game.
“Full credit to them as they made it difficult for us and we are glad to be in the semi-final.
“We had control of the game in the first half without threatening too much but we got a fantastic finish from Grady McGrath just before half time while we should have had a second from Marc Scott just after half time which nine times out of ten he would score.
“We made some poor decisions in the second half but Fraser MacLeod then scored another good goal.
“We had two or three good situations which on another day we would have taken but we are glad to be through.
“Fraser McLeod has been a breath of fresh air for us with a lot of ability to score goals like he did today. He moved up a level this year and has embraced the move while the benefits of what we are seeing is the work he is putting in.”
Lossiemouth manager Joe Russell said: “It was another hard luck story. similar to what we had at Buckie last weekend and that is the way it turns out sometimes.
“We should definitely have had a foul on the edge of the box early on but the referee said there wasn’t enough in the challenge to award it.
“I felt the first goal was offside by quite a considerable margin with the assistant not being up with play to award it.
“Our lads worked hard throughout but the final pass just wasn’t there in the box.
“At the other end our centre-halves were excellent with Ryan O’Halloran and Lewis McAndrew limiting the opportunities that Brechin had to score.”
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