Brechin 1 Falkirk 1: League woes continue

Finn Graham's second half effort cancelled out Alex Harris' first half drive and piled pressure on the Bairns who remain in ninth place with just a goal separating them from the bottom.

By the time Falkirk were ahead through Harris' low drive, they could well have been behind. Kalvin Orsi picked off Robbie Thomson off his line - though not far - with a clipped shot that beat the keeper and struck the bar. Graham's follow-up was headed over - he made up for it later.

But six minutes later the Bairns were ahead and a lovely little give and go between Harris and Rory Loy left the former with a low strike beyond Smith.

Both he and Nathan Austin could have added more with strikes close to half-time but they pulled each inches wide of either side of the Brechin net.

In the second half there was a couple of changes when Craig Sibbald and Lee Miller came on for James Craigen and Nathan Austin, ending their suspensions incurred at Dunfermline. For Sibbald it was a return to the scene of his competitive debut for the Bairns some 247 games ago.

That ended in a 2-0 win with the manager in the home dug-out today among the scorers. He was celebrating again but a Falkirk win looked further away as a result, when Finn Graham forced in a spell of Brechin pressure to level for Darren Dods' men. In truth the pressure had been since the break and Falkirk offered little in the second half.

Peter Houston immediately swapped Kevin O'Hara on for Rory Loy, but it failed to pay off.

Indeed it was Brechin who were closer to winning, Ryan McGeever heading tamely at Thomson where anywhere else would have netted a goal, after Tom Taiwo had been booked for a foul on Brechin sub Isaac Layne. Payne also could have won it late on going one-on-one with Thomson which would have snatched a game the Bairns should have had buried at the break.

Sibbald went close at the death with a jinking run and decent strike that Graeme Smith pushed out.