Brechin City 3 - 1 Aberdeen

There was a large attendance at Nursery Park, Brechin, when the home team met Aberdeen A in a Northern League fixture. Teams:-

Brechin City: Balfour; Shand, Lyon; Melvin, Findlay, Young; Winter, Clark, Easson, Matthew, Murray.
Aberdeen A: King; Hannah, Harper; Davidson, Macfarlane, Henderson; Hay, Towns, McKenzie, Robertson, Jaffrey.
Referee - Mr. Baxter, Dundee.

In the early part of the opening half the visitors pressed strongly, but breakaway by Easson, who cleverly tricked the back, gave him an opening, which King had never a chance to save. Inspired by this success, Brechin wakened up, and played became more evenly distributed, and for the cross-over Brechin had secured another point.

Shortly after the resumption, Easson, who was and rampant form, scored another point for the homesters, and while Aberdeen had a fair share of the play, they seemed unable to locate the goal, Balfour being equal to holding any really good tries. Shortly before time Lyon handled within the penalty line, and Aberdeen secured a goal from the kick.

Source: Aberdeen Daily Journal, 13th September 1909

THE RESERVES WHACKED.

Saturday was a day of disasters for Aberdeen footballers. The reserves were at Brechin in search of Northern League points, and for the first time suffered a reverse in the Cathedral City. At Nursery Park, the City are bad to beat. They know every inch of the narrow enclosure, and its uneven surface suits their style of play, which is of the wide-passing and followg-up order.
After about ten Minutes in which Aberdeen did almost everything but score, a breakaway by Esson, the City's centre, saw King beaten, though the goalkeeper might have saved the shot had he made up his mind earlier how to meet it. McKenzie and Towns missed chances of equalising, when another disaster befel the visitors. Hannah failed to hold Murray on the left, who got his cross in, and Harper failing to clear, Winter pushed the ball past King with the greatest of ease.
Breehin played hard after this success, finishing the first half in strong fashion. Jaffrey was prominent at the start, but Findlay kept a close watch on the left-winger's centres, while he was never far away when McKenzie was about goal. After pressing, it was a bit hard on the visitors to see another burst on the part of Esson result in a third goal, quite a simple one in its way, but counting all the same.
Keeping at it, Lyon gave away a penalty, which Davidson converted. Several times Aberdeen came near scoring, but the home backs kicked out at all costs - a ragged game ending in favour of Brechin City by 3-1.
Aberdeen were never seen to worse advantage, not one of the team played up to form. On the narrow pitch, they got mixed up somehow, and never moved in unison after the first goal was scored against them. Instead of adopting a wide, open game, they persisted in close dribbling without any tangible result, though it was pretty enough to look at.
If points are to be won away from home, a different style of play will have to be adopted, for they will never score on a narrow pitch by such methods as they adopted on Saturday.
Brechin have a fine bustling centre, who lay well up, and when he got on the move, could shoot straight. Shand was the surer of the two backs, Lyon miskicking on several occasions, while the absence of Hampton as goalkeeper was scarcely noticed, for Balfour is a clever successor.

Source: Bon-Accord, 28th August 1909