SOMETIMES substitutions work perfectly. This was certainly true at Glebe Park on Saturday as Ian Diack rose from the bench to snatch a dramatic winner deep into injury-time as Brechin City left it late to overcome an East Fife side previously undefeated on their travels this season.

SOMETIMES substitutions work perfectly. This was certainly true at Glebe Park on Saturday as Ian Diack rose from the bench to snatch a dramatic winner deep into injury-time as Brechin City left it late to overcome an East Fife side previously undefeated on their travels this season.

The 32-year-old striker has recently fallen out of favour at the Angus club but this clearly hasn't diminished his predatory instinct as he found space at the front post to fire home a cut-back from fellow substitute Michael Paton in the 95th minute.

Afterwards, Diack admitted that results like these could be crucial to his side's title aspirations. "If we go on to win the league by one point then this is a massive, massive game," he said. "They put us under a lot of pressure in the second half and we were struggling to deal with it but we've got players like myself on the bench who have scored a lot of goals and Michael Paton. So we had guys who could come on and maybe change things and we're just lucky it's worked out that way for us.

"We are a good bunch of lads with a good team spirit and I think that if you have got that first and foremost then you have got a good chance."

It is this camaraderie that has seen Brechin bounce back from a humiliating defeat at Peterhead a fortnight ago and Michael O'Neill, the manager, believes his side have used that defeat to their advantage.

"Getting beaten the way we did maybe wasn't a bad thing, it was a wee bit of a reality check for us and since then we have reacted well," he said. "There is great belief in the squad, they're enjoying playing and you can see that in the way they try to play. It breeds confidence and confidence is 90% of the game."

Brechin took the lead after only seven minutes as Kevin Byers volleyed past Michael Brown. Greig McDonald stabbed the ball home for East Fife to bring the scores level and it looked the points would be shared before Diack's late intervention.

Dave Baikie, the East Fife manger, said: "We've had two hard games and we equipped ourselves well. There's a long way to go."