Brechin manager Darren Dods is hoping that the spirit his threadbare squad showed to come back from three body blows in their semi-final against Raith Rovers will help in the first leg of their play-off final against Alloa.
The sides meet at Glebe Park tonight with Dods hoping that his side again digs deep to shine.
Dods explained: “We are low on numbers but high in spirit. We were winning in injury time at Stark’s Park however Raith grabbed an equaliser to force extra time. We were recovering from that when they went ahead 3-2 and people expected us to go under.”
“Our equalising goal was actually the first free kick we have scored in the two seasons that I have been in charge for. That took us to penalties and we fell behind in them as well but recovered to win.”
“The fight from the players was brilliant and they deserve to be in the Final.”
Brechin’s last two games against Alloa in League 1 have however been painful affairs with the Wasps hitting a last minute winner at Glebe in march with Jim Goodwin’s side racking up a 6-1 success at the Indodrill Stadium last month.
Dods said: “Those games do not matter now. They have gone.”
Dougie Hill, Gareth Rodger, Darren McCormack, Alan Trouten and Euan Smith have been ruled out to leave Dods with just 14 players however he added: “The legs are tired but we will lift ourselves again I am sure.”
Alloa manager Goodwin has told his players that they will need to fight to gain any advantage over the hosts ahead of Saturday’s second leg.
Goodwin said: “Brechin are a side that do not throw in the towel and they do not give up on anything as Saturday showed. We will have to match their effort and commitment and if we do that and hit the levels we can then we can get the first game in what is a massive few days for the club off to a great start.”
“We will not be taken in by our recent 6-1 win over them. That was a one-off.”
Alloa reached the Final by coming back from a goal down to beat Airdrie on penalties in the second leg and Goodwin is looking for the level of performance at the weekend to be hit again.
Goodwin said: “We played well on Saturday and were disappointed at not getting it done before penalties kicked in but we got through. However we had to play really well in that leg to do that.”
“If we play to that level again then we have a good chance of getting a good result at Brechin. If we let our standards drop like we did in the first leg then we will struggle.”
Graeme Holmes is the only doubt for the Wasps due to a slight hamstring problem.
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