COWDENBEATH kept their place in the Scottish League after a stay of 113 years was put on the line on Saturday.

Brad Smith’s dramatic winner saw off Highland League Champions Cove Rangers and led to huge celebrations among more than 1,200 home fans in the 1,762 crowd at Central Park for the Ladbrokes League 2 play-off.

The Blue Brazil had been pushed into the play-offs with Cove, the winners of the Pyramid Play-off final with Spartans, through a failure to score enough goals all season.

However, on Saturday a double from Harvey Swann, and a 35 yard lob from Brad Smith, saw off the challenge from the north.

It was a superb end to a pretty awful season and manager Gary Bollan, who came in to the job in November with the team struggling, wants to see a big overall improvement next season.

He said: “A case of job done, but these situations are never easy at all and we did not play well enough in the first-half.

“However, the second period was completely different and we really should have scored more than the two we did to win the game but at the end of the day winning was the key factor.

“The main thing now is that we ensure that we do much much better next season and look to be challenging at the other end of the table come May.”

Chairman Donald Findlay spoke to the team before the game and asked them to go out and produce the performance that would preserve the club’s 113 year stay in the Scottish League.

After the game he was on the pitch thanking the players for their efforts and the fans stayed behind to praise the performance which preserved history.