Brechin travelled to Perth yesterday afternoon with almost half of the squad out due to injury. The opponents St Johnstone have had an inconsistent season so far, but recently recorded two priceless victories away from home against Clyde and Stranraer. Before the match, Ian Campbell had to sign up two trialists and call up Ryan Strachan to make the 16 man squad. Chris Wilson, a recent signing from Raith Rovers, made his debut at centre back while youngsters Danny Grainger and Chris Geddes were given starts.
In the last match played between the sides at McDiarmid Park, Steven Hampshire cancelled out Ryan Stevenson’s opener with a deflected effort, only for the Saintee's to score 2 late goals to seal all 3 points. In the most recent meeting between the sides at Glebe Park, St Johnstone ran out easy 4-1 winners with Jason Scotland scoring with a simply breathtaking strike.
In truth, this was an uneventful match in which Brechin failed to record a single shot on target and the Saintee’s barely had to get out of first gear to record a comfortable victory. Matt Glennon, a recent acquisition from Falkirk, must have had one of the easiest debuts in history for St Johnstone. The keeper was so untroubled that he stayed on at half time to warm up for the second half.
The home side were in control from the start and went about going for an early goal. A 30 yard volley from new Saints signing Jamie Winter didn’t cause too many problems for Craig Nelson however, with the former St Johnstone keeper coping well with the bounce. Winter had another go for goal minutes later with Craig Nelson failing to hold onto the low drive but Owen Coyle failed to pounce on the rebound. Darren Sheridan then had his stinging 25 yard drive well held by Nelson.
Saints opened the scoring after 23 minutes after a well worked free kick which was slammed into the wall by Paul Sheerin, but the ball deflected into the path of world cup bound Jason Scotland, who laid the ball off for centre half Kevin Rutkiewicz, who slammed the ball home from close range to get Saints well on their way to their third straight win as they look to try and chip away at St Mirren’s lead at the top. Jamie Smith then did well to lay the ball off for Ryan Stevenson, who went for goal but Nelson did well to turn the powerful shot round the post.
City were then looking down and out as St Johnstone made it 2-0 eight minutes from the break. Darren Sheridan’s in-swinging corner was met at the near post by Kevin James who nodded into the net to give City an uphill task. City players surrounded and protested to the referee, claiming that Scott Walker was impeded by Kevin James just before the goal. This only lead to Alex Burns being yellow carded for dissent.
Saints came close after 56 minutes when Kevin Rutkiewicz fired the ball into the box where Kevin James rose to head the ball over the stranded Nelson, but fortunately for Brechin the ball hit the top of the crossbar.
St Johnstone then put the game beyond doubt after 66 minutes when they netted a third goal. Jason Scotland cleverly played Paul Sheerin through on goal and with City players claiming for offside, the former Aberdeen man stayed calm to finish neatly into the corner.
Jason Scotland, who will probably be playing more glamorous opposition than Brechin in the World Cup this Summer, was proving to be a real thorn in the flesh for Ian Campbell’s side as he looked to increase Saints lead. Scotland came close on the after 70 minutes when he drilled the ball across the face of goal from an awkward angle. The Trinidad and Toboggan striker was then put clean through on goal but his finish was rather disappointing, striking weakly into the arms of Craig Nelson in the Brechin goal when he really should have converted.
With ten minutes to go, there was a huge roar from the St Johnstone fans as they realised Ross County had just taken the lead against St Mirren at Love Street. The Saintee’s fans obviously don’t think the title is out of reach yet, and understandably so as they shortened the gap between themselves and St Mirren to 7 points, with the two teams set to face each other in a fortnight’s time.
This was a really disappointing performance from Brechin. City were perhaps without most of their key players but failing to record a single shot on target and only recording one shot on goal, which was an Alex Burns effort in the first half which ended up high in the stand, is embarrassing. This was a game where St Johnstone didn’t need to get out of first gear and could and should have won by many more. Pink now has to fire up his troops for the home match against Airdrie Utd in a fortnight’s time, when hopefully a few of the injuries will have cleared up.