Brechin City picked up their second win on the trot with a deserved victory over Cowdenbeath at Glebe Park.
Both of City’s goals came in the second half, with on-loan Raith Rovers youngster David Bates grabbing the opener four minutes after the break when he forced the ball over the line after great work from Andy Jackson.
Midfielder Jonathan Tiffoney added a second and decisive goal 14 minutes later when he slotted the ball home after a Robert Thomson pass had created the opening.
City manager Darren Dods was very pleased with the effort his team put in over the 90 minutes, and is determined that this second victory in succession will spur his side on to start climbing the table.
“The lads worked really hard in the first half, although our final pass let us down,” he said.
“However, I knew that we would create further goalscoring opportunities after the break if we continued to play the way we had been doing in the opening 45 minutes.”
“I was absolutely delighted for David Bates when he scored our opening goal.
“Despite being only 19 years of age he has fitted in really well since coming in on loan from Raith Rovers, and when Jonathan Tiffoney scored our second goal shortly afterwards I felt that we were well on our way to victory.
“We now have to try and put pressure on the teams immediately above us to get ourselves into the pack in the middle of the table and we’ll be looking to continue our run against Stenhousemuir next Saturday.”
The Blue Brazil had a chance to get back into the match with seven minutes remaining when they were awarded a penalty after Robbie Buchanan had been impeded by Craig Johnstone, but Graeme Smith brought off a fantastic save from Buchanan’s spot-kick.
The visitors were dealt a further blow a minute later when Dean Brett was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Cowden manager Colin Nish said: “We only started to play after Brechin scored their second goal, which was extremely disappointing, particularly after our excellent performance against Forfar last Saturday.
“I thought our players looked lethargic today, and when we missed a penalty late on I knew that it wasn’t going to be our day.”