However, he admitted that his side could have been killed off by Albion during a nightmare opening period to the second half, despite being the better side over the course of the game.

O'Neill said: "It was a quality goal from a quality player; we expect a lot from him and he delivers for us time after time.

"I felt that we were well on top in the first half of the game and probably should have been more than one goal ahead.

"We started the second half particularly badly. Defensively, John Ward obviously wasn't right. We had problems with Craig Nelson taking a knock as well and Stirling took advantage of that.

"They piled the pressure on us, and while I didn't think it was a goal, it was given and we didn't react well to that as a team.

"It took us 20 minutes to recover from the goal and to be honest Stirling could have had the game won in that space of time.

"Thankfully they didn't and I thoughtin the last 20 minutes we got ourselves back into the game and a wee bit of brilliance from Darren won it for us.

"We're delighted with the win because, at times in the second half, it looked as if the game had slipped away from us and I couldn't see how we were going to manufacture a win.

"The goal just took the momentum out of us. They didn't even celebrate, which you would normally do. There was no reaction from their players, no one claimed the goal and our players are adamant that it wasn't in.

"But these things go against you and thankfully, although we didn't react as well as we would have liked to, we eventually got ourselves back to playing what we are capable of."

O'Neill also took time out to praise Garry Twigg's performance. The striker scored on his league debut for City, but also linked up very well with those around him, in particular Iain Diack.

"Game by game Garry Twigg's going to be a good player for us. He's not played a lot of football recently but you could see his touches and he got his goal as well as linking up well for the second. I thought Iain Diack had an excellent game for us as well" commented O'Neill.

"In this division there are very few comfortable victories where you come away and say we controlled the game from start to finish. I've found that over the past two years and I'm sure I'm in for another roller-coaster season again."

At the time of writing it is still unclear as to the fitness of three key players for Brechin, with Willie Dyer also carrying a knock from Saturday, alongside the aforementioned John Ward and Craig Nelson. Speaking ahead of the games against East Fife (Wednesday) and Stranraer (Saturday), O'Neill said that decisions still have to be made about the players' fitness:

"We'll have to assess Wardie and Willie Dyer, while Craig Nelson is our major doubt."

There is still work being done behind the scenes to try and add to the squad, although one of the two players who had been training at Glebe Park will not be signing a permanent deal, while negotiations are still ongoing with the remaining trialist.

Speaking to "The Brechin Advertiser" Michael said: "There's been no further progress as of yet. We won't be pursuing it any further with one of the players and we're still trying to negotiate something with the other player, whereby he comes and trains with us. It's just not been as straightforward as we had hoped."