Brechin City lost their second away game in as many weeks as they crashed 3-2 against Stenhousemuir at Ochilview on Saturday.
It was a hugely frustrating and disappointing afternoon for City, who had started the game so well, going in at the interval deservedly one goal up, and manager Ray McKinnon couldn’t hide his anger and disappointment at the end of the 90 minutes.
“We went in 1-0 up at half-time and we asked the players to approach the game they way they did in the first half but we found ourselves a goal down after 25 seconds because of poor defending,” he said.
“The second goal we conceded six minutes later was again down to horrendous, rash defending and Stenny scored their third goal because we didn’t pick up John Gemmell.”
“It’s very frustrating because we had a good shape about us and were looking very solid in the first half. However, 15 minutes of madness left us chasing the match, which seems to be happening every week.
“We clearly have problems defensively. The players contributed to their own downfall, but we all must take responsibility and work hard to rectify matters.”
City dominated from the opening whistle and home keeper Chris Smith brought off a couple of great saves in the first 10 minutes before Brechin deservedly grabbed the lead after 14 minutes when Paul McLean rose above the Warriors defence to head home an Alan Trouten corner.
However, the roof fell in after the break when bad marking allowed Gemmell to slot home the equaliser and Stenny grabbed the lead six minutes later when Sean Dickson took advantage of poor defending to blast a shot into the roof of the net.
Stenny were firing on all cylinders and goal number three arrived in the 63rd minute when Gemmell powered home a header from inside the City penalty box.
Andy Jackson pulled a goal back with 11 minutes remaining, but it was too little and too late for the visitors, who are now seventh in the table.