Brechin City v Stenhousemuir: McMenamin hopes to repeat final day escape

He’s now hoping he can repeat the trick again this time as a manager.

His Stenhousemuir side travel to Brechin on Saturday in a tenth versus ninth clash at Glebe Park, knowing a point will be enough to avoid the automatic drop to League Two.

Defeat though and it’s Brechin who preserve their League One status - at least until the play-offs - and the Warriors who are relegated.

The stakes couldn’t be higher, but it’s not a position that is alien to McMenamin.

The Stenny boss was part of the Livingston side who stayed up on the final day of the season back in 2005.

They needed only a point against Dundee in a relegation decider in the SPL – and sure enough they got it in a nervy 1-1 draw at Almondvale to send the Dark Blues down.

McMenamin told the Falkirk Herald: “I know what the players will be going through. I was at Livingston at the time and we were at home to Dundee on the final day of the season in 2005.

“We needed a draw to avoid relegation and that’s what we did.

“I can relate to how the players will be feeling and what it means to the players, that’s something I’ll speak about at training and on Saturday.

“We have got a good group of players so I won’t be focusing too much on what I did, it’s what they do on Saturday that counts.”

Stenny only need a point to avoid finishing bottom after a hard fought draw with East Fife last week.

However, McMenamin insists they won’t be playing for a draw against Brechin and also stressed what it would mean to the Warriors to stay up.

He said: “It would be huge if we can try to stay in this league.

“There’s a couple of big teams in the Championship that are facing the drop, so if we could try to stay in the league, financially it would be huge to keep our status.

“We’ve managed to keep our fate in our own hands, which is what I asked the boys to do.

“We will go up there and show the right attitude, we’ve got great quality in the squad and if we can get a positive result, we will be happy.

“If we lose the game and put in a positive performance, we can’t question the boys.

“We’ll try to win the game, the game plan could change depending on how the game goes.”

Stenny are unbeaten against Brechin this season and won 2-1 at Glebe Park in their previous encounter.

McMenamin said: “It is immaterial how previous games have gone between the two sides, it won’t affect the game on Saturday.

“Brechin are not a bad team, they are on a bit of a poor run, which is unfortunate for them, but we know we will have to work hard to get a positive result.

“Hopefully we can take up a good crowd, we have a solid core of fans. Listen, it’s a great wee club and we’ve had a great 2019.”