Brechin City are still looking for their first win of the season after going down to a 4-1 defeat from hot League One title favourites Rangers at Ibrox.
It was always going to be a difficult day for City.
With Rangers legend Sandy Jardine unfurling the Third Division Championship flag before kick-off and more than 44,000 supporters baying their side on, City’s game-plan was to keep things tight at the back and try and frustrate their opponents.
However, they lost a goal with barely two minutes on the clock when Chris Hegarty picked his spot in the net after a Nicky Law shot had been blocked and they had to withstand almost constant home pressure for the remainder of the half.
The fact that they didn’t concede a lot more goals during this period was down to a combination of poor finishing from the hosts and outstanding goalkeeping from Graeme Smith.
Rangers didn’t add to their tally until the 40th minute when Law picked the ball up 30 yards from goal and moved forward a couple of paces before unleashing a tremendous right-foot drive which gave Smith absolutely no chance.
It was a different scenario though after the break. Rangers lost a bit of their fluency and rhythm and this allowed City to assume more possession without creating anything really clear-cut.
They dramatically got themselves back into the match after 65 minutes with an outstanding goal from young defender Steven Jackson whose overhead volley sailed into the top corner of the net after a Derek Carcary corner had only been half-cleared by the home defence.
City gained in confidence immediately after this but were dealt a hammer blow in the 80th minute. Rangers were awarded a penalty after Andy Little went down in the box after being challenged by Paul McLean.
The City defender was dismissed by referee George Salmond and although Smith saved Ian Black’s penalty, the former Hearts midfielder was on hand to blast the rebound into the net.
This blew the wind out of City’s sails and they lost another goal three minutes later when Gers substitute Dean Shiels fired home from the edge of the penalty box.
City boss Ray McKinnon felt that the penalty award changed the course of the match.
“I would need to look at a replay of the action before coming to any conclusions, but the players definitely thought that the penalty decision was very, very soft,” he said.
“It was certainly a game-changer at that moment, because at that stage I thought that the Rangers players were looking nervous which enabled us to have a go which I was really pleased about.
“However, going down to ten men made things really difficult and it swung the pendulum back in Rangers favour and they then killed us off with a great goal.
“The idea was to come here today in what was a big occasion for both sets of players and keep things compact but losing an early goal threw our gameplan out of the window.
“All credit to Rangers who were outstanding during the opening 45 minutes. Jon Daly might easily have scored another couple of goals in the first-half but Graeme Smith was absolutely outstanding in goal for us bringing off some great saves.
“It was a different story in the second-half. Rangers didn’t have that swagger that they showed in the first-half and we had a go and made Rangers resort to playing more of a long-ball game but the penalty decision killed us off.
“However, at the end of the day, you can’t grudge Rangers their victory. They’re a quality side and were the better team by far on the day.”