With the rain pouring down, goals from Gary Twigg, David White and John Ward secured the win for the away side in a game which they never looked like losing.

Brechin were boosted by all of their injury doubts, Dyer, Ward, and Nelson, being passed fit to start the game, while Ian Nimmo returned from suspension following his red card in the Challenge cup game.

Brechin almost took the lead as early as the ninth minute when Kevin Byers left foot shot was deflected by Jon Smart towards his own goal but Willie McCulloch produced a fine save to keep the scores level.

Minutes later the East Fife keeper again had to pull off a smart stop to deny Iain Diack, with the front man shooting after some neat play on the edge of the penalty box.

From the resulting corner White volleyed the ball back across the box but Nimmo could only direct his header straight at McCulloch when perhaps he should have done better.

Brechin were causing all sorts of problems from set plays and a Neil Janczyk ball in from the right saw White head over following some confusion in the box.

City then had what seemed like a perfectly good goal disallowed when Gary Twigg chased down a loose backpass, which McCulloch seemed to just cannon off the Brechin front man, with the ball ending up in the back of the net.

The linesman flagged however, and the referee Brian Winter chalked off the effort, presumably for high feet.

Brechin were well on top at this point with Twigg, Diack, Darren Smith and Byers particularly influential.

Twigg linked up well with Diack in the 35th minute, playing his strike partner through on the inside left channel, but Diack's shot was saved by McCulloch at the second attempt.

Former Brechin midfielder Kevin Fotheringham saw a 30 yard effort deflected and well saved by Nelson in the Brechin goal, before three successive corners saw the away side putting the pressure back on East Fife.

Brechin got the breakthrough their performance deserved right on the stroke of half time when Diack turned provider, playing Twigg through in the box, and the former Hamilton man turned on the ball before firing it low across goal into the bottom corner.

City went in happy at half time, having dominated the match so far, with the only complaint being that they were only one goal up at the break.

The second half began with more of the same, with Murie intercepting an East Fife pass brilliantly and playing the ball to Byers down the right hand side.

However, with Twigg, Diack and Smith all darting into the box, the winger's cross was stopped with a last ditch tackle by the East Fife defence.

East Fife had a chance to equalise on the hour mark though, when Cameron's lobbed free kick into the box was headed over by McManus from six yards, following some head tennis in the Brechin box.

Brechin extended their lead six minutes later though when Kevin Byers swung a corner into the box and Davie White rose to bullet the ball into the roof of the net with a header.

It was a case of deja-vu eight minutes later when, after Diack had done very well to force the corner, Byers again delivered, but this time it was John Ward who rose to beat McCulloch to the ball and head it into the net via the post.

A flurry of substitutions was then made by both sides, and one of Brechin's replacements, Steven Canning, came close twice in the closing stages, when first he saw an effort deflected over from the edge of the box before firing over from 20 yards after the resulting corner ended up at his feet.

As the full time whistle blew Gary Twigg was announced as man of the match, but Diack, Byers and Nimmo were also outstanding for City in a display where it was difficult to fault anyone's performance.

Speaking after the game, manager Michael O'Neill said: "I thought we played some excellent football at times. We got the ball down and we moved it and we're at our best when we do that.

"It's a great pitch here and the wee bit of dampness on it helped us to move the ball and there were some great performances.

"You can see the difference now, Gary Twigg's in his third game and Iain Diack's coming back from his operation. I thought they were excellent tonight and they compliment each other very well.

"I thought as a whole the team grew in confidence. The midfield four were excellent, I thought Nimmo again was superb in there again, as were the two fullbacks and centre halves, I was delighted with them all.

"All that's missing from Diack at the minute is goals, but we know he'll get those, and Twiggy is just quality, you can see that in everything he does.

"His touch, his movement, his ability to bring others into play and we've got the right players that when you bring them into play they're going to hurt people."

Brechin City: Nelson; Murie; Dyer; Ward; White; Janczyk; Byers (King 81); Nimmo (Canning 85); Twigg (Walker 81); Diack; Smith.
Subs not used: Smith; McCluskey

East Fife: McCulloch; Nugent; Cameron; Smart; McDonald; Fotheringham; Young; Stewart; McManus (Templeman 83); Crawford (O'Reilly 83); Stanic (Gordon 68).
Subs not used: Linn; Brown