The hedge is back! With a glamour cup tie against Hearts and dreams of a league return, Brechin City are very much on the up again
As welcome as it’s been, the progression witnessed across Scottish football since the advent of the pyramid system a dozen years ago has come at a price.
You rarely hear of players fleeing from the stock car racing at Cowdenbeath’s Central Park these days or the fact Berwick Rangers still combine speedway with football at Shielfield.
Albion Rovers’ Cliftonhill ground is still ramshackle and charming, but largely now forgotten about. These days, East Stirlingshire have little to cling to other than the fact they were the first club to employ Alex Ferguson as a manager. More’s the pity.
While days in the sun for some of the game’s lesser lights were always rare, they’ve been pretty much non-existent since that quartet slipped quietly into the Lowland League.
Talk of returning to the big time one day is easy. A table showing none of those former senior stalwarts in the top six of the fifth tier at this moment suggests it won’t be happening any time soon.
Up in Angus, though, there are grounds for believing that the exile of another great name of the game will only be a temporary state of affairs.
The sight of fans lined up alongside the Glebe Park hedge is an iconic image in British football
Now residing in the Highland League, Brechin will relish their return to the big stage this week
Ally McCoist was in charge of Rangers as they began their ‘journey’ back at Glebe Park in 2012
When Brechin City finally bubbled under in 2021, for geographical reasons, the club dropped into the Highland League.
Only the absence of a slice of good fortune has kept them there. Having finished third, they won the title in 2023 only to lose out to Spartans in a play-off. Last season saw Buckie Thistle pip them on goal difference.
Currently sitting top of the pile having lost just one game in 19, you sense the door to League Two will open for them again soon.
No harm to those upwardly mobile outfits seeking to become the next Kelty Hearts or Bonnyrigg Rose.
But Brechin’s return would surely be warmly welcomed by anyone who’s spent an afternoon in this city of just over 7,000 people.
We shall be reminded what we’ve been missing this evening when the TV cameras roll into Glebe Park for the Scottish Cup tie with Hearts.
With trees in the background, a hedge famously the backdrop to the North Side of the ground and the patterns on the pitch so stunning that Subbuteo recently used it in an advert, it will be good to reconnect with one of the game’s most iconic grounds. It’s been too long.
The name on the outside of the main stand recalls happier times: A solicitor by profession, David H. Will was chairman for two decades before becoming president of the SFA and a vice-president of FIFA.
The club have garnered worldwide fame for their unique pitch patterns
Under his watch, little Brechin came close to winning promotion to the Premier League in 1984.
The subsequent 40 years have been nothing if not varied. There were five changes of division in five seasons in the 1990s alone.
Dick Campbell took them from the fourth tier to the second in short order in the noughties although his twin brother Iain – the club’s record goalscorer – didn’t fare quite as well when he succeeded him.
The famous old place was the venue where current Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill began his managerial career in 2006.
Six years later, it played host to Rangers in a live TV Challenge Cup tie that was the Ibrox club’s first match since liquidation. Carlos Bocanegra and Lee McCulloch were in Ally McCoist’s side that day (a nervy 2-1 away win).
Current Rangers player Connor Barron also had a spell on loan at Brechin in his Aberdeen days.
Dick Campbell celebrates a League Cup win over Kilmarnock for his Brechin side in 2003
In 2018, the Hedgemen created a piece of unwanted history as they accrued only four points in the Championship, thereby becoming the first senior team in 126 years not to win a game.
It sparked a slide which saw three relegations in four years. Bottom of League Two in 2020, the suspension of football meant they were spared the ignominy of a play-off.
A year later, having finished in the same spot, they were defeated by Kelty and have been trapped in the Highland League ever since.
Others in their shoes might be privately content with their new existence, but the club’s desire to climb back up to the fourth tier and beyond is obvious.
‘Do you want to see Brechin City and its iconic Glebe Park and world-famous hedge back in the SPFL?’ reads a section on its website.
‘The club is currently on a journey to create Scottish footballing history and become the first to beat the pyramid system and regain entry to the SPFL.
The Angus club were relegated from League Two after a few years of freefall
‘To help the club achieve its ambitions and plan for future success, all our supporters, from near and far, can become a Hedge Hero and pledge either a monthly or one-off donation.’
This sentiment is echoed by current chairman Kevin Mackie.
‘We’ve been handcuffed to that Highland League for four years, so hopefully we’ll get out of it soon,’ he said.
‘We certainly would hope so, but the system’s all flawed. Clubs like ours basically throw significant money at it to get half a chance of coming back.
‘We deserve a break, that’s all I’m saying, without being ungrateful.
‘The Highland League’s been really hospitable, fantastic. But it’s a cup final every Saturday you go away from home.
‘You’re the ones that they want to beat. You’ve got to take it on the chin.
One-time Arsenal youth and former Falkirk and Hibs midfielder Patrick Cregg is now City boss
‘What’s been a bitter pill to swallow is the fact we got a payment when we went down, but the lot went on travel expenses.
‘When we were in League Two, very rarely took a team bus. But we need one most weeks now.’
With the game heading for a sell-out and a cheque for TV coverage on its way, the coffers will get a much-needed boost. But it’s the sense of occasion that you can’t put a value on.
‘Listen, the plan was to get to the fourth round, so the lads have done that,’ adds Mackie.
‘I think it’ll be a sell-out as there’s only a handful of tickets left.
‘The atmosphere will be good, the town and the players will get a buzz and the fans will get a reward.’
Now managed by former Falkirk midfielder Patrick Cregg, Brechin have no shortage of connections with the Premiership giants.
Brechin have found themselves big fish in the small pool of the Highland League
Former Hearts players Kevin McHattie, Anthony McDonald and Brad McKay are on their books. So too is Cillian Sheridan, a man of many clubs including Celtic and Motherwell.
None of the trio of ex-Jambos were based in Gorgie the last time Hearts faced Highland League opposition, but they’d need to have been living in a cave not to have heard all about it.
Four years ago, then working their way back up from the Championship, Robbie Neilson’s men lost 2-1 to Brora Rangers at Dudgeon Park. The current side will underestimate Brechin at their peril.
‘We go in there massive underdogs,’ Mackie stressed. ‘But stranger things have happened.
‘I said to Paddy this morning to just go and enjoy the occasion.’
After the most torrid period in their history, Brechin are surely entitled to that much.
BRECHIN CITY v HEARTS
Kick-off: Friday, 7.45pm, Glebe Park.
TV: LIVE BBC Scotland.
Referee: Grant Irvine.
