Annan Athletic 1, Cowdenbeath 0.

Ladbrokes League 2

Attendance-363.

YET another single goal defeat and a blank for the Blues and it is a situation that has to change soon to avoid the problems of last season.

Yet again Cowdenbeath had plenty of the ball at Galabank on Saturday, but they struggled to create as many chances as they managed at Clyde and really their shots on target tally was probably the lowest it has been all season.

Nonetheless Cowden were always in the game and right up to the closing seconds were in with a chance of a point.

Goalkeeper Joe McGovern had another tidy afternoon and the defence in general played really well with again Fraser Mullen and Harvey Swann deputising at full-back.

The Josh Morris-Ryan Connelly partnership did not really hit it off here and Trialist Jordan Garden and Cammy Muirhead went on for them at the break and certainly posed the home team a few more problems, but there were no goals.

Cowden's first chance of the afternoon came after just two minutes when Connelly sent over a cross from the left but Brad Smith sent his shot just over.

At the other end Peter Watson headed over following a cross from Rabin Omar while Omar himself saw a shot saved by McGovern.

Robbie Buchanan then sent a 17 yard drive just over the Annan bar but it was the home side who took the lead in 37 minutes when Aidan SMITH fired home a free-kick from the edge of the box after Omar had been fouled by David Syme.

Billy Brown freshened up his front line for the start of the second-half with Muirhead and the trialist forward replacing Morris and Connelly.

It was, however, the home side who almost added to the scoring with in a minute of the re-start when an Omar shot came off the post.

Mullen then fired in a free-kick which was gathered by the 'keeper while Annan saw Smith fire over and a Moxon effort was turned around the post by McGovern.

Roberts then fired just over while McGovern saved from Omar before Mullen sent an angled free-kick across the face of the goal. Nothing worked in the danger area for the Blues.

Annan Athletic: Atkinson (7); Hooper (6), Brannan (6); Moxon (7), Watson (7), Swinglehurst (7) (Sonkur 87 (2)); Orsi (6) (Henderson 73 (3)), Smith (8), Omar (6), Roberts (6), Luke (90 (2)). Subs not used: Creaney, Cunningham, Murphy, Mitchell.

Cowdenbeath: Joe McGovern (7); Fraser Mullen (7), Harvey Swann (7); Ali Smith (6), Scott Rumsby (7), David Syme (7); Robbie Buchanan (6) (Ben Stirling 77 (3)), Kyle Miller (6), Josh Morris (5) (Cammy Muirhead (46 (5)), Ryan Connelly (5) (Trialist  46 (5)), Brad Smith (6). Subs not used, McInally, Denton, Ovenstone, McGurn. 

Referee- Peter Stuart (6).