Cove v's Cowdenbeath / Cowdenbeath v's Cove

[Ivo den Bieman]

52 in total.

Well done Cowdenbeath.

There seems to have been a few controversial decisions at the game but John Sheran really embarrassed himself on the radio afterwards...

[Only coo in the village]

The standard of football was really poor but I enjoyed the game despite feeling sick with nerves for a large part of it.

Cove were completely on top in the first half despite conceding an early pen. At half time I was far from optimistic about our prospects of getting level again, far less winning the game. The guys turned things around in the second half though and at the end I felt we deserved the win. Nobody could fault the Cowden players for their level of determination and fight. They ran for every ball and were committed in their challenges. The stooshie at the end was great entertainment and the Cove players completely lost the plot. 

Great as it feels to stay up can we please go for a boring mid table finish at least next season and let another set of supporters see how it feels to finish bottom? 

Sadly my Dad and brother are no longer around and it would have been great to share a bottle of Malt to celebrate with them tonight. 

Well done to the players, board and management. Another horrible season but we are still standing  

[wulliemc]

In the grand scheme of things I thought the ref did ok.

Cove first goal seemed like mitch was in no mans land so who knows if it was onside. Only Cove fans in line with the decision.

Thought Sheerin was brought down in lead up to Cowden 3rd and he may have tripped keeper but 6 and 2 3's and was paying more attention at other scenes.

Regardless the composure from Smith to slot that from so far out was sublime in any game but to win a game like this?

The melee at the end was Cove losing the heed not the ref or officials. More dignity required.

[PRS]

9 minutes ago, Jimmy Shaker said:

McManus never managed to rise above his hair-trigger tantrum level. Good player, so easy would up.

Megginson did 48 goals before today in 55 games.

Like I said, Cowdenbeath were there for the taking.

Cove were far ahead in the first half and there did look like a league between the teams, with Cove looking the team from the higher league.  Second half, Cowden certainly improved but their victory had more to do with Cove just not turning up in the second half.

[Wee Sandy]

10 minutes ago, Ivo den Bieman said:

52 in total.

Well done Cowdenbeath.

There seems to have been a few controversial decisions at the game but John Sheran really embarrassed himself on the radio afterwards...

Put me in mind of Billy Brown when he was manager at East Fife!! There was a man who had done "hings", been places etc!!

[theSilverFox]

57 minutes ago, Jimmy Shaker said:

Central Park is a nice place, Cowdenbeath is a nice place,

The last time I was your home town of Lossiemouth Jimmy, which was a very long time ago, I remember it was very nice. Sad to hear it's gone down hill so much if you think Central Park and Cowdenbeath are nice.  Maybe the sun went to your head but I always see it as a place you wipe your feet on the way out....

Anyway, well done Cowdenbeath and Gary Bollan (I like Gary and I'm a Loon) though I will admit I hoped to Cove come up.

[Jimmy Shaker]

The last time I was your home town of Lossiemouth Jimmy, which was a very long time ago, I remember it was very nice. Sad to hear it's gone down hill so much if you think Central Park and Cowdenbeath are nice.  Maybe the sun went to your head but I always see it as a place you wipe your feet on the way out....
Anyway, well done Cowdenbeath and Gary Bollan (I like Gary and I'm a Loon) though I will admit I hoped to Cove come up.

I’m still here.

Drinking in Diamonds, due to a train SNAFU. Might be the sun or the win, but Cowdenbeath is smiling tonight.

[big al]

Game of 2 halves. Cove were dangerous first half and deservedly led. They offered very little 2nd half though.

couple of decisions for once went our way but the way Cove lost the plot at the end was ridiculous.

heard they had a banner made up for after the victory, hope it wasn’t too expensive and maybe their champagne will keep for something else.

to all the fans who wished us to go down, unlucky. 

To all the fans that wished us well and to those neutrals who came today, muchos gracias. 

When the sun shines

[Hampden Diehard]

Delighted that Cove lost since their Chairman is the top guy at the SFA who are shafting my club. What was Sheran like? Hilarious.

[theSilverFox]

3 minutes ago, big al said:

 

to all the fans who wished us to go down, unlucky. 

 

There's always next year....

[cowdenbeath]

11 minutes ago, Hampden Diehard said:

Delighted that Cove lost since their Chairman is the top guy at the SFA who are shafting my club. What was Sheran like? Hilarious.

Wish I had heard this Sheeran interview looking back the Cove heads gone at the end was funny never thought Jim McInally and the Shire players meltdown in the 2009 play off would ever be matched but Cove managed it today.

Think Coves problem was they thought they had it won at half time didn't show up in the 2nd half remember lads a game lasts 90 minutes not 45.

Edited to add 

In the last 12 months we have beaten last seasons Lowland League Champions EK, last seasons Highland League Champions Buckie in the Betfred Cup and now this seasons Highland Champions Cove - I think at shows there is a gap between the non leagues and the bottom of the SPFL.

[cowdenbeath]

Just now, ali_91 said:

This isn’t a dig at Cowdenbeath, the rules are in place before the season starts and they deserve their place in the league for staying up within the parameters of the relegation system. 

 

But, there needs to be automatic relegation from the League, the bottom club go down and the top club come up, that’s the way it has to be, if you win your pyramid level you deserve to go up without having to play a play off.

I’d personally have the winner of the play off come up and the loser of the play off play second bottom to decide on a second promotion/relegation spot. Understand this will never happen and understand that there’s no way the league clubs would vote for this, but from an excitement point of view this is the way to go. You just have to look at the Championship and Premiership to see the added excitement that extra relegation place provides, makes much more meaningful games, and the (fantastic) crowd today shows again that fans come out for big games. 

At the end of the day the 42 SPFL clubs voted for the play off after all those years of a closed shop.

It has taken England the best part of 40 years to get their pyramid to where it is today I think eventually someday we will have a unified non league set up and probably eventually an automatic relegation remember it took 8 years for that to happen down south as well and even longer to get the play off for a 2nd promotion place.

[Jimmy Shaker]

Home time. Thank you Cowdenbeath, you’ve been fabulous.

[newcastle broon]

6 minutes ago, cowdenbeath said:

Wish I had heard this Sheeran interview looking back the Cove heads gone at the end was funny never thought Jim McInally and the Shire players meltdown in the 2009 play off would ever be matched but Cove managed it today.

Think Coves problem was they thought they had it won at half time didn't show up in the 2nd half remember lads a game lasts 90 minutes not 45.

Edited to add 

In the last 12 months we have beaten last seasons Lowland League Champions EK, last seasons Highland League Champions Buckie in the Betfred Cup and now this seasons Highland Champions Cove - I think at shows there is a gap between the non leagues and the bottom of the SPFL.

Surprised by yer comment here cowdenbeath, yer usually a bit more respectable but yer erse must been going playing at least 2 of them 3 teams. Yer team should nae be in that position in 1st place and I'm sure yer looking over yer shoulders at yer neighbours in maroon. 

There was of course the Scottish Cup v a certain LL team ye forgot to mention 

 

[cowdenbeath]

2 minutes ago, ali_91 said:

This of course doesn’t show anything. You scraped by East Kilbride on penalties last year and by all accounts were second best over the 180 minutes this year. It’s completelt irrelevant regardless, I’m sure Ross County would take 2 or 3 of St Mirren, but nobody would say they should have a play off to decide promotion. 

I would say in the EK game last season we were the better side for the 1st hour or so. Took a battering at Cove last week but a combination of good goalkeeping and woeful finishing by them saw a draw which I wasn't unhappy about, today Cove best 1st half us the 2nd.

At the end of the day we won both ties so that's all that matters in the end.

[Jaggy Snake]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b2r992

15 minutes in for the interview on Off the Ball.

If he'd just stuck to talking about poor refereeing decisions he'd have been okay but all the conspiracy stuff is nonsense. Not even a proper thanks to the Cove players or fans for this seasons efforts.

"I'm not calling anyone a cheat, I'm just saying we feel cheated by the system and by four officials missing that block..."

[Jimmy Shaker]

Cove are notoriously bad losers. Upon blowing the league last season, they also had three sent off along with their manager.

Some ginger c**t on the platform is moaning about his train being cancelled. Clown.

I can hear the stock car race. What a day. What a venue.

[HibeeJibee]

Congratulations to Cowdenbeath. Commiserations to Cove.

It must be said that Cove had the possession, pressure and chances to be 2 or 3 goals up at HT. Given reports of similar dominance and profligacy in the first leg, they should have been done & dusted long before the fateful refereeing decisions appeared.


Nevertheless I feel very sorry for Cove due to the circumstances which turned a lead into defeat. During the 2nd half the stand side linesman seemed to go to pieces and amidst this he looked to be responsible for 2 horrendous decisions. Sheerin played for the free kick that caused the equaliser - he put his feet together, hopped and fell like a tossed caber, but the body slam he was expecting never came and if there was any contact from the defender it didn't look significant. I'm pretty sure his instantaneous reaction to the linesman flagging was that he was about to get booked for diving - only to discover he had indeed won a foul. That said it was poorly defended and went through the everyone - attacked and defender alike - like a bouncing bomb, and in for 2-2.

Those sort of decisions are perhaps debateable, but unfortunately the winner appeared a sheer shambles. I'll be interested to see the highlights but it seemed totally obvious that Sheerin had brought down the goalkeeper leaving another player to strike the ball into an undefended net. I think the referee may have been beyond them, and the terracing side linesman and 4th official might have been too far away or unsighted: but again the stand side was looking right at it. It actually took some time for the Cove fans to realise the referee had blown and gestured for a goal and not the free kick which everyone expected. 3-2. Mayhem.


However, whilst this sense of grievance no doubt explains why Cove totally lost it at the end, it is nevertheless neither justifies nor condones it. Their discipline totally broke down so we were "treated" to someone being booked for a heavy challenge, them promptly earning a straight red for gross dissent; a 20-odd man melee that even WWF could have considered too far-fetched; at least 2 more red cards and the manager being sent to the stand. At one point a steward came on the field to remove a Cove player (is that actually allowed btw), and at FT the same steward ended-up acting as "guard dog" for the match officials - which of course only added to the conspiracy theories of the more energised Cove fans. Great entertainment for the neutral, but doing no credit to those involved.

I think the Cowdenbeath players goading and gesturing the Cove fans at FT was pretty unnecessary - I don't remember such last year v EK, if anything it was simply a respectful relief - but again the fisticuffs just before probably explain their ebullience.


Cowdenbeath live to fight again. Cove must do it all again.

If anything today's circumstances - for both sides - simply reinforced my feeling that SPFL2 promotion/relegation must be opened-up beyond 1 playoff.

Finally - for the second year running, and in a different part of the ground, there was no running water in the toilets. Really not good enough - and I'd say that of any SPFL2 ground including us at Berwick if it happened here.

[cowdenbeath]

2 minutes ago, newcastle broon said:

Surprised by yer comment here cowdenbeath, yer usually a bit more respectable but yer erse must been going playing at least 2 of them 3 teams. Yer team should nae be in that position in 1st place and I'm sure yer looking over yer shoulders at yer neighbours in maroon. 

There was of course the Scottish Cup v a certain LL team ye forgot to mention 

 

Wasn't being   un respectable Broon or certainly never meant to be, a few of your WW mates ie Rab B and the Mantis know me and know I like going around the non league grounds and I never diss clubs.

I would say EK were the best out of the 3 but still thought we were doing well against them last season until they equalised, they deserved their Scottish Cup win and tbh i'm glad they didn't win the LL.

As the season has gone on their league position has shown Buckie must have gone back from last season, if Cove had taken their chances last week they could have been out of sight but they didn't and it was the same the day in the 1st half and that will probably haunt them. 

[PELE]

We were poor first half. Too many players day dreaming. Cove mostly try to knock it long over the defence, but they do it very well. Cove's first goal looked well offside though. Need to see highlights. At last we score a goal when the keeper is well out of position. I  was too busy looking at Smith to see if he would score to notice what happened to the Cove keeper. I thought I could see him on the ground and back up and then down again out of the corner of my eye. People saying Sheerin was fouled before the keeper went down. The keeper would not have got back for it anyway.

Looked like a second yellow for McManus for mouthing off yet again. Then a straight red for Ross for the foul in front of our bench. Then a second yellow for Watson for something in the melee after this. Then, I think, two red cards for us. Bollan and possibly our coach Flaherty. All too late to have any real impact.

Feel sorry for Cove. It is a tough ask to get into the league. I also think there should be either two up/ down, or one up and a play-off for the other spot. The non leagues need to be sorted to make this more of a realistic option. Did not look good for us after they went 2-1 up without really even stepping up a gear, but they almost looked like they thought it was going to be their day without the need for more effort. They faded too quickly. We were just lumping hopeless balls up to Sheerin expecting miracles from him. He still keeps battling on though all day long. I thought we could get Reilly on and send long balls to him to run at the Cove defence, as they are not the best.

It was strange on the terraces surrounded by lots of neutrals. Very quiet for such an important game. We should have been in the old stand and making lots of noise instead of spread out around the terrace.