Brechin City head into tonight’s first division play-off final first leg as a club in mourning after the shock death of one of their former directors.
And Glebe Park manager Jim Weir believes the best tribute they can make to popular clubman Steve Mitchell would be to beat Ayr United and secure promotion.
The 42-year-old family man, who used to be match secretary, was a well-known face in the Angus town and celebrated with fellow supporters after Brechin beat Cowdenbeath in Saturday’s semi-final.
As Weir pointed out, his sudden death has left a cloud hanging over the club.
He said, “Steve was one of our biggest supporters and this has been a tough week. He was at the match at the weekend and was celebrating with the rest of us.
“All the players knew him and it has hit the town hard, and particularly the committee. There will be a lot of emotion at our two games this week.
“I don’t think the players need any extra motivation for this final, but if they did, this will spur them on. We want to win it in Steve’s memory.
“We want to give people something to celebrate even though there will be sadness. We’re determined to do everybody justice.”Semi-finalAyr had their semi-final with Forfar effectively put to bed after just one leg, by winning 4-1 in the first fixture.
For Weir the priority is making sure the same doesn’t happen to them.
He explained, “The important thing is that we’re not in a situation where the tie is beyond us when we take them back to our place.
“We want to be in a situation on Sunday where we’ve got a big crowd in Glebe Park and we’ve got a good chance of winning. Tomorrow is all about giving ourselves that chance.”
Brechin were underdogs in the semi and he believes the same is true this time round.
He said, “Ayr are strong favourites as far as I’m concerned, both tonight and for the tie as a whole. They finished the season strongly and were able to rest players and keep them fresh for the play-offs because they were safe.
“We didn’t have that luxury because we were fighting for our place right up to the last day, but I trust my players to put in a good performance and I know I’ve got quality in my side.
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“A draw would be a decent result but with our away form, we’re capable of getting a win.
“The players can’t be happy with just getting to the final. If we are then that will be the end of the road.”Honest MenBrechin’s last match of the regular season was a victory over the Honest Men, but Weir is reluctant to read too much into that result.
He stated, “They left a few of their players out that day. The fact that we’ve won two of our matches, and they’ve won two, shows that it could go either way.
“Brian Reid (Ayr manager) would probably agree that the tie will probably be won by the team that makes the fewest mistakes.
“We were a bit edgy towards the end of the season and we didn’t have a good first half in the first leg of our semi-final, but on Saturday in the second leg we handled the match really well and we should gain confidence from that.
“We’re delighted to be in the final but now we want to go all the way and win promotion.”
Defender Gerry McLauchlan looks like missing out on the Somerset Park clash.
Weir said, “Gerry’s our biggest doubt. The way it’s looking at the moment I’d say he’ll struggle to make it, but if he was even 80% we’d play him.”
Ayr’s Dean Keenan is out, while Andy Rodgers will get a fitness test on his hamstring.
Reid said, “These next two games are cup finals for us. They beat us at the start of the season when we did not have a settled team and at the end of the season when we rested players so I am not overly concerned about what the statistics tell us.”