City went away having leap-frogged second division leaders Stranrer with a goal which had "stolen" written all over it. It fell to Stuart Callaghan after 62 minutes and was a shade fortunate, but the Brechin new boy certainly grabbed his chance to make his debut a dream outing.
Both sides provided a fast and entertaining first half but without really troubling either keeper. It was a midfield struggle in which Stranraer clearly had the upper hand but rarely got through to close range to test visiting keeper Craig Nelson.
On the other hand Brechin, who never looked like getting into a decent scoring position either, actually came closer to hitting the net. Paul Ritchie, fully 35 yards out, suddenly volleyed a fast clearance and forced a wonderful instinctive tip over the bar from Stranraer keeper Michael McGovern.
McGovern, however, was the man who got caught out in the second half when Brechin snatched the lead. Their free-kick away out on the right was cleared over to the left where Callaghan, playing his first game for Brechin, swung a foot at it and from almost 40 yards the ball went in at the far post.
Having grabbed the opener, Brechin showed they were a clever side by the way they went about closing the game down. If there had been few chances going before the single goal, there were even fewer afterwards as they skilfully kept Stranraer at arm's length.
It was a gripping struggle between the two top sides, and the committment shown by both suggests that lead might change again more than once before the season ends.