Brechin City manager Darren Dods is relieved to have won a midweek match that was more La Liga than League One.
The clock had nearly struck nine by the time the Glebe Park side kicked off against Airdrie on Tuesday night, after the closure of the Forth Road Bridge from mid-afternoon had caused traffic misery for motorists.
Dods had several players who only arrived at the ground just in time for the unprecedented start, and had been in their cars for the best part of five hours.
The City boss believed the SPFL made the wrong call in insisting the game be played but, thankfully for his team, they were able to win it.
Dods said: “We wanted to postpone it and Airdrie wanted to postpone it. Everyone wanted to postpone it apart from the league.
“By the time the game kicked off it was five to nine.
“At the end of the match I asked the linesman how long was left and he told me ’one minute and stoppage time’. I checked my watch and it was 10.45!
“This isn’t La Liga!
“It’s part-time football and our boys had to go to their work the next morning. And who’s going to take their children to a match that finishes near 11 o’clock?
“It says a lot for the attitude of my players that they got the win. It took them a wee while to find their legs after next to no warm-up.
“The result was what we wanted but we wouldn’t want to go through that again.”
The victory made it three in a row for Brechin, and Dods can see similarities between the form they are finding now and the form they were hitting at the same stage last season.
He said: “We went on a good run about this time of the year. Like this season we were getting players back, winning games in hand and building up some momentum.
“Hopefully that will continue.”
Brechin travel to face Queen’s Park today, and victory would put eight points between them and one of their play-off rivals.
Alan Trouten returns to the squad but Willie Dyer is a doubt after picking up a shoulder knock.
