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City "very, very lucky to still be in the cup"
BRECHIN City manager Jim Duffy accepts that his side are very, very lucky to still be in the Scottish Cup - following the thrilling four-all draw at Wick on Saturday.
"We were the second-best team by far," he commented.
"Wick played some good football and thoroughly deserved to be in front. Perhaps they thought at four-two they could sit in a little bit and that allowed us to get a couple of chances.
"I thought Rory McAllister played very well and Charlie King's finishing was excellent.
"But I don't think there are too many people who can hold their heads up - from the goalkeeper out, we were second best.
"Fair play to Wick, their link-up play was very good. The pitch was heavy but they didn't just lump it up the park.
"I don't often get the chance to see Highland League football these days but, if that's a measure of how Wick normally play, they are a good side.
"They'll be bitterly disappointed not to have won the game but will be very optimistic that, if they perform like that again, they can still go through.
"We were hanging on by our fingernails, no question about it, but we are still there and we can play a lot, lot better.
"We've been very solid at the back. The one thing we haven't looked like doing is losing many goals this season, and yet, on Saturday, we lost four.
"Everything we could possibly do wrong, from the middle to the back, was happening. We seemed disorganised - making wrong decisions, trying to play offside when we shouldn't, diving into tackles when we shouldn't.
"I'm hoping that's the level of mistakes you sometimes get in one game, and we don't repeat that - because if do we'll be out of the competition.
"We just didn't perform. The only shining light for me was our front play - we scored some good goals.
"Fair play to the players for coming back - we've done that a couple of times this year. We've shown a bit of resilience in a few games, dug in and got ourselves back into it, so I've got to compliment the players for still being in the tournament.
"But we were poor, were second best, and very, very fortunate.
"We said to the Wick players at the end of the game they were the better side. It's not patronising - they'll be delighted with their performance, but they'll be hurting because they should be in the next round on their own instead of the two of us being in the hat together.
"We're still in it by the skin of our teeth. In terms of football, in terms of 90 minutes' play, Wick were by far the better side, there's no question about that."
Wick Academy co-manager Ian Munro said: "It was a great performance right from the word go. We're very disappointed that we didn't come away with a win.
"The guys were in the dressing room with their heads down but really they've got to keep their heads up because it was a fantastic performance.
"That's our style of football, that's what we preach, and that's what we keep trying to get into the guys - to play football and play it on the deck. We're scoring goals and beating most teams by playing good football so we'll just keep that going.
"Unfortunately, we lost a couple of stupid goals again and let City back into it, but I think Jim Duffy and his team will be feeling very fortunate.
"Any time we got the ball we were breaking quickly and still going forward trying to push for goals.
"Brechin's third goal gave them a wee bit of a lift to push on and try and get the equaliser, and it was just unfortunate they got it at the time they did."
Munro added: "We believe in the style of football we play, so we won't be changing our thinking towards it."
Co-boss Richard Hughes said: "We're still in the draw, and there's no reason why we can't go away to Brechin and still play good football.
"There's no pressure on us in the replay. We'll just go down and try to play the same kind of football we produced on Saturday."
The Wick co-managers were delighted with the level of support from the home fans in a crowd of around 1200.
Hughes said: "The support was superb and we'll have supporters on Saturday as well; the same as at Girvan - they'll come from all over and they'll head for Brechin."
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Weather for Brechin
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 1 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 0 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North
