Montrose 1, Cowdenbeath 1.

Ladbrokes League 2

Attendance-543

HAVING played the top two teams in the past week and come so close to taking something from second top Peterhead, and drawing yesterday with leaders Montrose, Cowden fans have every right to believe that 2018 can be a better year for the club.

Cowden gave the Gable Endies a really tough game and they could have won it, working really hard throughout the 90 minutes and creating some good chances.

The leaders were eager to repair the damage done to their challenge by Peterhead on Saturday, so this was always going to be a tough game for the Blue Brazil but they certainly showed no worries about the entire league table bring between them and Montrose.

It was a case of same again for Cowden and like most of the recent games the defensive structure was again excellent.

Dave McGurn did excellently in goal while the back four worked really hard against a sharp attack, and full-backs Harvey Swann and Matt McInally caused Montrose problems on their sojourns forward and the latter hit the woodwork late on.

In midfield Fraser Mullen, Kyle Miller and Blair Malcolm had spells in charge and with Brad Smith a real danger in wide areas, it was no surprise that Cammy Muirhead and Robbie Buchanan on several occasions caused the Montrose fans real anguish.

In four minutes Cowden went close when Muirhead found space in the home box and his fierce shot was well saved by Allan Fleming.

The home side responded with Terry Masson and Connor McLaren being off target and Gary Fraser being just wide before Swann produced a great save from Fleming.

It was a very open game and both sides were happy to look to flood people forward to try and gain a foothold but at the interval there were no goals.

The Blues opened the second period with Muirhead again finding Fleming in top form from his 18 yarder, then Malcolm saw his 20 yarder blocked before Muirhead saw his eight yard header just go over.

In 54 minutes Miller dragged his 12 yard drive inches wide before Iain Campbell replied for the Gable Endies and his shot was blocked by Jamie Pyper.

On the hour mark Smith’s shot was excellently dealt with by Fleming but in 68 minutes Cowden slipped behind. Campbell did the spadework and his cross was headed wide of McGurn by FRASER.

Cowden came right back at Montrose and Mullen saw his close in effort blocked before McInally’s right foot shot cannoned off a post but the Blues were not to be denied.

With 80 minutes on the clock the Montrose defence found themselves at sixes and sevens and BUCHANAN kept his cool to shoot into the net from close range.

Both teams had half chances after that but a draw was a fair reflection and the only downer for Cowdenbeath was that rivals Edinburgh City managed to win against Berwick but any sport of win on Saturday will take the Fifers off the bottom.

Montrose: Fleming (7); Allan (6), Steeves (6); Dillon (7), Campbell (7), Masson (7); Callaghan (6) (Trialist 63 (3)), Watson (7), Fraser (7), McLaren (6) (Templeman 60 (3)), Webster (Johnston 60 (3)). Subs not used, Hay, Cavanagh, R Campbell, Trialist and Millar.

Cowdenbeath: Dave McGurn (7); Matt McInally (7), Harvey Swann (7); Jamie Pyper (7), Scott Rumsby (7), Kyle Miller (7); Fraser Mullen (7), Blair Malcolm (8), Cammy Muirhead (6) (Craig Henderson 67 (3) (Jordan Garden 87 (2)), Brad Smith (7), Robbie Buchanan (7). Subs not used, Shaun Rutherford, Mark Fotheringham, Ryan Connelly and Trialist.

Referee-Scott Lambie (7).