Stephen Simmons guided Brechin City to the top of the Breedon Highland League with victory against Turriff United and is now awaiting an update on who their new manager will be.
The Hedgemen announced prior to their 3-0 win at the Haughs that they hoped to appoint a replacement for Andy Kirk – who left for St Johnstone earlier this month – on Monday, with final interviews set to be concluded over the weekend.
Simmons has been in interim charge for victories against Turriff and Clachnacuddin, but doesn’t know who is likely to assume the hotseat at Glebe Park, or what his future holds.
He said: “I spoke to the chairman (Kevin Mackie) and said I would take the game last week and this week and see what happens after that.
“I’ll speak to Kevin at some point.”
Fraser MacLeod’s goal and a brace from Grady McGrath earned the champions their win against Turriff and also took them to the top of the division.
Simmons added: “It’s another good performance, the boys worked their socks off and gave everything so I’ve got to be happy with a 3-0 win.
“If you’re in the league you want to be top of it and that’s where we are just now.
“There’s a long way to go, but we want to try to stay there.”
Early opener
It took Brechin seven minutes to break the deadlock with Lewis Martin’s ball down the right channel releasing MacLeod, who beat the offside trap, before lobbing his finish over onrushing goalkeeper David Dey.
Shortly after Turriff came close to an equaliser when Finlay Murray’s header from a Callan Gray corner was flicked towards goal by John Allan.
Visiting custodian Lenny Wilson blocked and the ball was scrambled away, with referee Joel Kennedy also dismissing United penalty appeals for holding.
In the 26th minute the Hedgemen doubled their lead with Turra caught trying to play out from the back.
That allowed the Angus side to set up McGrath inside the box and the striker coolly finished into the left corner from 12 yards.
Turriff came close to pulling a goal back in the 38th minute. Gray did well to block Wilson’s attempted pass on the slide and was then held down by Wilson at the left edge of the box.
Ref Kennedy booked the Brechin goalkeeper – although some in the home ranks were claiming for a red card – and awarded a free-kick with Gray’s powerful attempt beaten away by Wilson.
In the 52nd minute the visitors sealed the points. Marc Scott released Ewan Loudon down the right – with home appeals for offside falling on deaf ears – and his angled shot was parried by Dey.
MacLeod latched onto the rebound and chipped the ball to the back post for McGrath to volley into the net.
Turra, to their credit, didn’t wilt and Ewan Clark fired narrowly over on 64 minutes after breaking free on the right.
In injury time the hosts did have the ball in the net when Fergus Alberts headed home Liam Strachan’s cross, but the offside flag was up.
No complaints from Cummings
United boss Warren Cummings said: “Brechin deserved the result they got, the disappointing aspect for us is the first goal we conceded.
“We spoke about not getting done with one ball in behind us, when you work on different things that’s disappointing because it was something that could be negated.
“We ask the players to be brave so I haven’t got a problem with mistakes, if there’s an honest mistake with us trying to play then we’ll take responsibility for that.
“You don’t want to give the ball away cheaply, but when you’re asking the boys to play in a certain manner it can happen.
“It could have been quite easy to throw the towel in when it went 3-0 down so early in the second half, but they didn’t stop, they kept going.
“It’s not always easy to maintain your standards of hard work, but we did that.”
