Brechin certainly made a name for themselves over the course of the season, but for a completely unwanted reason. For the first time in 126 years of football in Scotland, a team had failed to win a single fixture. Brechin finished the season with only four points and 26 adrift of 9th placed Dumbarton.
Finishing 4th in League 1 and reaching the Championship via the play-offs was a huge achievement for part-time Brechin. They were fully expected to struggle against full-time teams, but not to the extent they did throughout the season without a single win.
The opening fixture produced a 4-1 defeat at Queen of the South, but the next fixture at home produced an encouraging 2-2 draw with Livingston. Another draw with Falkirk soon followed and Brechin had hopes of at least a few wins. However, after that they only managed another point before the turn of the year.
Brechin’s fate was all but sealed before mid-season. They were not getting hammered in every game and quite often were only losing out by a single goal. However, even in the darkest days of mid-winter in wind and rain they could not fashion a win. They completed the season with 16 consecutive defeats.
Brechin kept a lot of their games tight, despite failing to win them. This was largely due to a dogged spirit that was maintained in the dressing room until the last few games of the season when the heavy defeats came along regularly.
Few players can emerge from such a season with credit. However, goalkeeper Graeme Smith deserves a mention for not suffering a mental breakdown during the season as defeat followed defeat.
After such a harrowing season, Darren Dod’s managerial position is surprisingly said to be safe.
