Brechin underlined the fact that they plan to stay in the League One title race with a home victory over Stenhousemuir.
The win takes Brechin up to third in the division, ahead of Forfar on goal difference and takes their unbeaten run in the league to 15 matches.
Glebe Park boss Ray McKinnon said: “It wasn’t a great game but we got the three points. After the big games we have had recently, against the likes of Falkirk and Dunfermline, perhaps it was difficult to get motivated.
“We are in the middle of four games in ten days and I only have 14 players available. I wanted to freshen things up, but we were flying at the end.
“We had a few chances and we could have buried the game, but we defended well and worked hard for the victory.
“Paul McLean’s attitude was typical of the team. He suffered a cut head but defended brilliantly and got forward to score.
“We have another big game on Tuesday (against Dunfermline), but we have a few walking wounded and we will be down to the bear bones.”
Stenhousemuir rocked Brechin by scoring after two minutes. Paul McMullen split the defence and Colin McMenamin found the bottom corner.
It could have been worse in eight minutes when a Bryan Hodge shot clipped the post.
Brechin equalised on 18 minutes when they were down to ten men with McLean off receiving treatment for a head cut. Andy Jackson collected a Ryan Ferguson pass and shot home.
Ferguson shot over, then five minutes from the break, McLean headed over.
Brechin went in front on the hour mark. A corner was headed on by both Gerry McLauchlan and Robert Thomson and McLean crashed the ball high into the net.
Brechin looked for more and on a lightning break, Jackson almost turned home an Alan Trouten cross.
On 77 minutes, Graeme Smith saved Brechin when he tipped over a Ciaran Summers drive.
Brechin had one final scare in the fourth minute of stoppage-time when Craig Sutherland had the ball in the net, but was given offside.