There were some changes to the Saints starting lineup, with Kevin McGowne and Andy Millen both rested ahead of Monday's game with Clyde. In hindsight it may have been wise only to rest one of the two as Saints seemed to struggle without the organisational skills of both.
Despite being bottom of the league, Brechin had the better of the early moments and Ian Maxwell had to look sharp to block Stevie Hampshire's shot after Charlie King had slid the ball through to him. After the corner was dealt with, Saints keeper Chris Smith threw the ball straight to Kevin Byers, but fortunately Smith saved the ugly midfielder's shot.
Saints were struggling at this point and could only force a few tame efforts, with Stewart Kean volleying straight at Craig Nelson before Kirk Broadfoot chipped the ball over the bar. With twenty minutes until half time, Brechin deservedly took the lead when an Ally Mitchell free kick was headed past Smith by the unmarked David White.
It was hard to see where an equaliser would come from, although Kean was unlucky when, after rounding Nelson, the angle became too tight and his shot trundled across the face of goal. Fortunately, Brechin didn't lead for long and after John Sutton and Kean ran into each other, the ball fell to Charlie Adam who unleashed an unstoppable shot past Nelson via the post. The midfielder likes to shoot at will but is a bit wayward, so it was good to see him hit the target again.
Saints were unable to add a second before half time, and were infact lucky not to find themselves behind again. Fortunately, they started the second half far more brightly and had several chances through Sutton, Broadfoot and Kean but were unable to take any of them.
With just over ten minutes of the half gone, Saints made the breakthough. A Simon Lappin free kick was played into the box, and a few seconds later the referee awarded a penalty. Why? Who knows, although apparently at least one of Sutton and Broadfoot were fouled. Whatever, Stewart Kean took the penalty and confidently dispatched it past Nelson.
Sadly, this was not the catalyst for Saints to grab a third and instead the scores were soon level. Broadfoot played a clearance straight to a Brechin player, and after some defending befitting of last season's Brechin team, David van Zanten brilliantly set up Darren Smith to fire an unstopable volley into the net. 2-2, game on.
Sadly, not for Smith. He was stretchered off a few minutes later after being caught by Hugh Murray, although the Brechin management claimed later that Murray had done it deliberately and was lucky not to escape with a card.
Broadfoot produced some more poor defending with twenty minutes left when he played the ball straight to Gerry Britton, but the ugly forward's shot was terrible and Smith would have needed to have a cardiac arrest not to gather it up.
Saints boss Gus MacPherson didn't win himself any friends when he replaced Adam with Mark Corcoran with just over ten minutes left, but he was soon forgiven. Two minutes later, van Zanten's free kick found the winger, and after controlling the ball he fired it past the hapless Nelson, who still managed to get a good, strong hand to it. Corcoran has recently expressed his unhappiness about being left on the bench, however he won't have to worry about that too much in the future if he keeps producing this.
The drama wasn't quite over, as with a few minutes left Grant Johnson was shown a second yellow card for a terrible foul on Corcoran that left the former Hamilton man with an injured ankle. Both teams had chances after this but fired wide, and there was relief when the full time whistle went.
We probably didn't deserve to win, but we've not won games we deserved to this season so it balances out. It also lets our lead at the top increase to eight points, with Clyde moving into second place. They visit Love Street on Monday for yet another first v second clash.
Saints have gone all of 2005 without losing a single first division game at home, and have conceded just six league goals all year. Well done lads!