Preview Brechin City

Ladbrokes League One: Saturday 26th March, 3.00pm kick off at East End Park

Dunfermline welcome Brechin City back to East End Park this Saturday. Pars fans are already planning a promotion party at Cliftonhill on the first Saturday in April but Brechin City may be hoping to scupper those.  The Angus side has struck form at the important stage of the season to pull themselves off the bottom rung. They have won their last four matches and will be hoping to keep that going when they come to Halbeath Road.

The Pars league season opened with a resounding 6-1 over Brechin win at Glebe Park and although the Angus side sit second bottom of Ladbrokes League One they have recorded wins at Peterhead, Forfar and Airdrie this season.

There have been 48 league meetings between these teams; the Fifers have won 32, Brechin City 8 and 8 matches have been drawn. There have been some high scoring games and the Pars have only ever lost four home games against their Angus opponents but one of those defeats was last season Brechin when visited on 24th February last year. That Brechin win was their first at East End Park since April 1987.

The best Pars result was an 10-1 win in 1929 but since that first ever fixture between the clubs, Dunfermline have home scorelines such as 8-0 twice, 6-2, 8-0 and 6-1. In Division One on 30th April 1994, the Fifers won 2-1 courtesy of goals from Stewart Petrie and Andy Tod.  When Brechin returned to Dunfermline after a gap of almost twenty years in 2013-14, they lost 3-1 with Ryan Wallace scoring a double and then in March 2014 won 2-1 when a Ross Millen penalty in the last minute ensured the three points stayed in Fife.

Last season Brechin City took four points away from their matches at East End Park.  A goalless draw on the opening day of the league campaign was followed by a 1-0 Brechin win on a Tuesday night in February.

This season the 6-1 opening day win was followed by 3-1 wins at East End Park - Faissal El Bakhtaoui (34) 1-0; Michael Paton (42) 2-0; Isaac Layne (66) 2-1; David Hopkirk (70) 3-1; and a 2-1 at Brechin - Josh Falkingham (6) 0-1; Robert Thomson (17) 1-1; Ben Richards-Everton (41) 1-2.

Brechin City started the season by losing their first eight competitive matches. They were knocked out of the Petrofac Training Cup at home to Peterhead and exited the League Cup the following Saturday at Ayr. In September back to back wins over Peterhead and Cowdenbeath looked as though they might have turned the corner in terms of form.

Brechin have only won eight league games this season and half of them have been in the last four matches. Their recent form has seen them beat Forfar, Ayr, Airdrieonians and Albion Rovers.

Dunfermline have now gone eight league games without defeat although they have won all bar one.

Last Time Out

DUNFERMLINE (v Cowdenbeath): Sean Murdoch; Craig Reid, Brad McKay, Ben Richards-Everton, Jason Talbot; Michael Paton (David Hopkirk 69), Andy Geggan, Josh Falkingham (Rhys McCabe 78), Joe Cardle; Ryan Wallace, Faissal El Bakhtaoui.
SUBS NOT USED: Paul Joseph Crossan, Shaun Byrne, Lewis Martin, Shaun Rooney, David Hutton (GK).

BRECHIN CITY (v Albion Rovers): Graeme Smith; Paul McLean, Darren Dods, Gary Fusco, Willie Dyer; James Dale (Jonathan Tiffoney 52), Lewis Spence, Craig Molloy (Liam Coogans 62), Andy Jackson.(Euan Smith 89), Robert Thomson. 
SUBS NOT USED: Jamie Montgomery, Scott Shepherd, Lukas Culjac, Patrick O'Neil (GK)

Referee will be Steven Kirkland

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