Elgin City 1, Cowdenbeath 1.

League 2

Attendance-584

A USEFUL point on the road for the Blue Brazil but they had to do a lot of good defending to leave Borough Briggs, on Saturday, with it.

After a really good start to the game the visitors got pegged back by the hosts who spent much of the second period attacking.

Once they equalised Elgin certainly looked the more dangerous side, but at the same time, Cowdenbeath had plenty of openings to carve out a winner.

With Kyle Miller carrying an injury and no Shaun Rutherford, Cowden had to move Harvey Swann back from the left wing to full-back and he did admirably for a youngster, looking very comfortable, and he even had time to lay on Cowdenbeath’s goal.

He was joined in performing solidly by Jamie Pyper, Scott Rumsby and David Syme, who scored yet another goal for the club.

Ben Stirling made his debut at centre midfield partnering Fraser Mullen, and the pair had control of things for the first third of the game bit after the break found it more difficult to dominate.

In attack 17 year-old Ryan Connelly was preferred to Josh Morris and he gave plenty of running while Cammy Muirhead was unlucky not to score.

Cowden started the game aggressively and in the second minute Mullen’s shot from the edge of the box was well saved by Marc Waters.

The Blues then forced a couple of fruitless corners but in 11 minutes they took the lead.

Swann was the provider with a cross from a corner into the box and SYME rose to send a powerful header over Waters.

Seven minutes later Muirhead’s low shot was blocked by the Elgin defence then five minutes later the teenage striker saw Waters make a good save from his right foot drive.

But in 26 minutes it was 1-1 with Elgin’s first serious attempt. Matt COOPER found space and time to fired a 20 yarder high into the net.

This gave City confidence and they went looking for another and Darryl McHardy fired a shot just wide before Thomas Reilly also went close.

Cowden had a chance two minutes into the second period when Muirhead found space in the City box but his finish was too high but Reilly was posing problems for the visitors and he had two efforts which were just off target.

In the closing ten minutes the Fifers had to be on their mettle and Reilly saw his angled right foot shot blocked by Syme but with four minutes left Morris, on as a sub for Connelly, cut inside and fired a shot just wide.

Cowden forced a corner in time added on but the City rearguard kept it out.

Elgin City: Waters (7); Cooper (6), McHardy (6); Eadie (7), Bronsky (7), McGovern (7); Dodd (6), Cameron (7), Allan (6) (McLeish 73 (3)), Reilly (Ferguson 86 (2)), Reid (6) (Sutherland 82 (2)). Subs not used, Smith, McKinnon, Wilson and Dear.

Cowdenbeath: Joe McGovern (7); Jamie Pyper (7), Harvey Swann (7); Ben Stirling (6), Scott Rumsby (7), David Syme (8); Trialist (6), Fraser Mullen (7), Ryan Connelly (6) (Josh Morris 67 (3)), Cammy Muirhead (7), Robbie Buchanan (6) (Kyle Miller 78 (3)). Subs not used, Hamish Thomson, Charlie Denton, Lyle Kellichan, Lewis Turnbull and Dave McGurn.

Referee-Grant Irvine (6).