Edinburgh City consolidated second position in the table with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over bottom side Brechin City at Ainslie Park tonight.
Manager Gary Naysmith made three changes to the starting XI that beat Stranraer at the weekend with Marc Laird, Danny Handling and newly named League 2 Player of the Month Raffaele De Vita replacing Robbie McIntyre, Daniel Jardine and Ousman See who were all listed amongst the substitutes.
Brechin City were without the services of on-loan Aberdeen midfielder Connor Barron who sustained ankle ligament damage in the match against Stenhousemuir last week and will be out for the remainder of the season. Chris McKee also missed the game after being suspended following his red card on Saturday. Gerry McLauchlan who was an injury doubt started on the bench.
In a dramatic start, the Citizens took the lead within the opening two minutes when a corner fell to former Hibs striker Handling who fired the ball into the net from 6-yards.
Moments later Naysmith was forced to make a change when Jordan Tapping was forced to leave the field with an injury and was replaced by McIntyre.
Brechin however refused to lie down and equalised in the 13th minute when Michael Paton/s cut back was hammered home by Bobby Barr.
Two minutes later the injured Rory Currie was replaced by Sean Slaven.
The visitors almost took the lead in the 26th minute but Callum Antell produced a superb save to deny Scott Reekie then shortly before the break De Vita passed up a good chance to restore City’s lead but failed to connect properly.
De Vita made up for his miss in the 71st minute with a powerful strike from outside the area which flew into the top corner for what would prove to be the winner.
Skipper Craig Thomson went close with a late free-kick which was wide of the target and the Citizens held on to secure a valuable three points.
The result leaves City three points clear of Stirling Albion who lost 1-0 at home to Stranraer.
