Well that was an odd one. Cowden score 4 and lose 4-2! For much of the game we played the better football although we too often tried to be too intricate and gave away possession. Ross County were big, fast and strong but thought they lacked a bit of creativity. In fact, they gave away a hell of a lot of free kicks with robust challenges when Cowden tried to break through the midfield.

1st minute though a cross from the right and John Armstrong dived to head the ball into his own net! Keeper then made a great save from Dougie Hill and Ross Co broke away to the other end and another cross from the right and this time Davie Armstrong intervened to slot the ball into his own net! Name change to the Armstrogs looked on the cards. 2-0 down and we had gifted the points to Ross County. We were battling to get back into game when defence went to sleep at a throw in and it was 3-0. Then we brought on Pat Clarke and with his first touch he banged in a fine strike! We pushed forward then but again shot ourselves in the foot. Free kick 30 yards out straight to Davie Hay and struck with no real venom. He was under no great pressure but pitch was greasy. He dropped the ball but still looked favourite to gather it but next thing it was in the net. Credit to Cowden though plugged away and the best goal of the match was grabbed by Dempster. After that we had a shot deflected just past with the keeper beaten and from the corner Dougie Hill's great header was kept out by another fantastic goalkeeping stop. Looked a goal, all the way.

Thus disappointing to see Cowden give away such comic cuts goals but we played some good football at times and we really donated this win to County. They still look good enough to be champions but flair wise were not that different from the Dick Campbell side. We have got a fair amount of new players in the team but there were signs that encouraged me for the forthcoming matches as long as today's gifts are not on offer to future opponents.

O'Neill I felt again had a fine game for us as did Dougie Hill. Jay Shields looked a useful acquisition and Dempster up front gives defenders a much harder 90 minutes than Scott Dalzeil did. Davie Hay's been superb this season so wouldn't criticise his howler too much. Pat Clarke looked sharp when he came on and no doubt somone will be on telling us Welshy should have played him from the start. However, after a long lay off and a win last week with the other front men doing well it made sense to keep the front line unchanged and bring Pat on as sub. Dave Bingham wasn't as effective tdoay but offers us a bit of craft and variety and we have seen in his first two games he will be an asset to the squad even if he's maybe not going to be a 90 minute man every week.

Not usually a big Pat Scullion fan but he played very well and made a difference when he came on for Cowden in the second half. County do look like a good side and i got the feeling that they could have moved up another gear if they had needed to. Cowdens defence looks very suspect at times and the better teams always take full advantage of this. We have shown recently however that we are more than a match for the teams around us in the league and can play some good stuff at times. Cowden scored two well taken goals and of course gave away complete howlers. Think County look good enough to take the league title and are a big physical team who outmuscled us at times.

I'm with you I thought Scullion did well when he came on and added some bite to the side. Quite a lot of folk slag the guy off but he does always give 100% effort when he plays.
As mentioned by the Cowboy a bizzarre game with the 2 1st half own goals, then the goal when Hay let the free kick slip from his grasp, although Barrowman like all good strikers was where he was meant to be and slotted home.
Good to see Pat Clarke back and he took his goal well as did John Dempster who has now scored 3 goals in 4 games for us.
County were my pre season tip for the title and i'm still sticking by that. There a big strong side and think overall they are a better side than their challengers for the championship.

no complaints today i thought the better team won,we did play some good football at times but gave away some howlers of goals.had to laugh when i heard someone shouting for welshy's head during the second half,what a muppet

I didn't see this thread and posted my views on the preview thread, but I'll post it here again.

Not long back up the road - Not a nice drive with the rain !

Anyway, the game may not have been the best but County did what was required and dug out another 3 points.

To get an own goal after what must have been less than 60 seconds was a bonus, although Dene Shields' skinning his brother for the cross was good to see, but the cross was difficult to defend and the boy headed it low into the bottom corner.

The second goal I must admit to thinking it was Martin Scott who got it, Both he and the defender went for it I just assumed Scott got the touch for the goal - he certainly claimed it himself - but who ever scored it, it gave County the 2-0 half time lead.

There was no doubt that Scott got County's third goal. A throw to Higgins almost on the goal line, he cut in and pulled it back to Scott who was unmarked on the 6 yard box and he had an empty net to tap it into.

Cowden though got a good reply, and a shot/cross from a tight angle found the player at the back post and he hit it back in from about 2 inches out.

But County restored the three goal lead, Hugh Robertson who was just on hit a freekick from 35 yards out, the keeper couldn't hold onto it and Barrowman tapped it in from inside the six yard box.
- I seen the Cowdenbeath fans giving him abuse again, and again he responded to them - Is there a history between the Cowden fans and Barrowman as he got booked at the start of the season far a sign he made to them ??

Cowden got a second goal in the last minute of the game, a good strike from 8 yeards out, although from a County point of view it was very poor defending on our behlaf !

I was quite surprised by how good the pitch was, it did cut up as the game went on but considering the amount of rain I thought it was very good.

Sounds like we got what we deserved, with all that Kamikaze stuff going on. Ross County are a good, strong, physical side and will deservedly win the league. If Ross County go up and we stay up, I'll be quite happy. It would be good if we could sneak a play-off place at the top end of the league, but we'd need more consistency for that. Survival in our second season would consolidate our position as a decent second division club.

This was not a fun game to have to keep up to date with at work Seeing the scores come in on sky sports was torture I may have broke a pint glass when Cowden went 2 nil down


Sounds like we chucked the points away so on the plus side at least we didnt play bad

Down to 8th in the league now - next Saturday is a huge game for us

To sneak a play-off place I think we would have to keep Pat Clarke

I think its the other end of the table we should be keeping an eye on. RC were strong quick and physical. We were steamrollered for most of the game. The midfield didn't (couldn't) compete until Scullion and Clarke came on. McQuade and Dempster tried hard but were living on scraps. Defence was poor.
Big game next week. Sure Mikey will have Berwick up for it.

Can't see anybody but County winning the league.

What a result - we've used all our bad luck for the season in one game. Cannot criticise any of the players yesterday, it was just one of those days.
Ross County are a big, strong team who can certainly "mix-it" A couple of their players were lucky to stay on the park for the full-game. It's a pity we hadn't scored our second before they got their fourth goal The result could have been different! The County players did seem to run out of steam second half again (they'll say they were saving themselves) Hpofully we'll give them something to think about in February.

Not sure at what time we would have a player sent off ?? I would say the person lucky to stay on the park was the Cowden defender who clearly handled the ball to stap Barrowman a clear run on goal !

As for the second half the biggest problem we had was loosing McCulloch, it's been quite clear in recent games once he stops covering just infront of the defence we look a lot shakier in defence, and after he went off injured it was again the case.
Also when Higgins went off we lost the ability to hold the ball up front, It wasn't the sort of field for Gardyne to do what he does best, and as a result we gave the ball away a lot more. than when Higgins was on.

your number 5 was very lucky to stay on the park,what with his tackle from behind and numerous other fouls.but as i said before the better team won

No doubt that was Keddie.

Your talking about the play-off to stay up eh?

how did jay shields play??

I thought he played well - didn't lose many tackles - covered a lot of ground.

Not sure at what time we would have a player sent off ?? I would say the person lucky to stay on the park was the Cowden defender who clearly handled the ball to stap Barrowman a clear run on goal !

Barroman should have walked. He was fouling all game - the foul he committed on Dougie Hill second half was a disgrace (he's a brave man to have done that!)

It was a great win yesterday, I'm happy we're scoring pretty freely at the moment. Is there any need for concern at losing six goals in three games? The Cove goals were relatively meaningless, and even yesterday we maintained a two-goal advantage at all times, but surely we need to be a bit tighter?

St Johnstone are in form too, so next week we need to be on fire.

Dissapointed with the game but these things happen and Ross Co do look like the best team in the league. The thing that bothered me was they seemed more hungry and desperate to get on win, we were lethargic at times. The amount of times we lost the ball by waiting on it coming to us while a County player nipped in and won it. The amount of times the ball went under our players feet was terrible. However i dint expect to get anything from the game and u cant make plans for individual errors. Jay sheilds added some much needed dig in the midfield, all we need is a left beack now(3 of the goals came fro that area)

Barrowman was getting abuse because hes a dirty b*****d, non stop fouling and as someone mentioned a shocking tackle on Dougie Hill, pity Dougie didnt get him back. The linesman was an absolute joke all day, wot is the point in them being there?

Positive note was that Pat Clarke is back and boy do we need him to fight to stay up and Scullion was immense when he came on, he is always a player i have time for, gives his all and tries things that dont always come off. Roll on Berwick

County got all the breaks, even from the "so called match officials". Twice the ball came off a county player for a throw in and the linesman waited for the ref to make the descision before putting his flag up, the ref even awared the throw in to County,lol. Barrowman got away with murder all game as did their number 5 & 7. Officials were very poor, amazes u how they get their badges.

But poor defending and one keeper mistake cost us, not much creativity from County, just more strength determination to win the ball won the game for them.

How we have missed Pat Clarke, just on a few mins and he finds the net.

Am sure getting an experienced, authorative man in defence may help us avoid losing poor goals.

Got to say that it was the same the other way round too. Several times in front of us the throws were given the wrong way, on one occation the assistant referee indicated for a County throw, then when the referee awarded it to Cowden, he simply changed the direction of his flag. And the assistant had a far better view.

But then you never see an assistant make a decision in this league, they always go by what the referee says.

But the officials weren't biased, they were just useless !

Very true. We got a corner in the 1st half that was so clearly a goal kick, i couldnt believe the linesman gave it, it was right on front of him!! Sheer incompetance

Not easy for the referees when linesman are so incompetent. But we see this every week - how often does a linesman wait until the referee makes a decision before lifting his flag - just watch next time you are at a game, it's a joke.
Not that our defeat on Saturday can be blamed on the officials (other than the leniency shown to Barrowman and the No5) but it makes it all the harder to accept.

The linesman at the Cove County game signalled and told the referee that he had seen a deliberate handball in the box, and County were penalised. You can't expect for an assistant referee to get every decision correct, especially when no one considers the point of view the assistant will see the incident from. On the whole the referees aren't that bad.

Looks like an easy win for County again, and the choo choo train steams on.

Aye and well done to the linesman at Cove (would this have happened if the score had been 0-0)

It's the linesman waiting until the referee makes the decision for him that causes the grief - he is bound to see things that the referee doesn't - easier to keep the flag down.

To be fair on that linesman I think he would have signalled either way. Retrospectively it looked to be the wrong decision as Martin Scott played the ball with his knee and if it touched his hand it wasn't deliberate. But the linesman thought he seen it and called it.

Any chance Cowden can gift our team more goals in the re-arranged fixture?

Letting Pat Clarke go to Clyde six months early ends our play-off chances.