Cowden's anguish as Gord saves Livi

Peter Swindon • Published 4 Aug 2009 14:05 0 Comments

Share this

Cowdenbeath's chances of reaching the second division by the back door all but ended last week when former chairman Gordon McDougall stepped in to save Livingston from liquidation.

The cash-strapped West Lothian club was widely expected to go under when owner Angelo Massone refused to sell his shares for the £25,000 offered to him by administrators Mazars.

If the first division outfit had folded, Airdrie and Cowdenbeath would have been promoted by the Scottish Football League.

But, at the eleventh hour, McDougall, along with ex-Dumbarton chairman Neil Rankine, decided to fund Livingston for a year. The pair have since persuaded Massone to part with his shares for £50,000.

Vice Chairman of Cowdenbeath, David Allan, was unimpressed. He said, "If Gordon wants to put his money into Livingston, good luck to him. My understanding is that he was desperate to get back into football.

"He certainly put a lot of his money into Cowdenbeath in his time - but he also took a lot out."

Cowdenbeath narrowly missed out on a second division spot after leading the third tier for a large part of last season.

A late surge by their rivals left them with only a play-off place and, after reaching the final, they were beaten in a penalty shoot-out by Stenhousemuir.

Blue Brazil manager Danny Lennon was keen to look to the future after his former boss consigned Cowden to division three for a second consecutive season.

"There's nothing that we can do about that," he said. "My focus now is on getting a result against East Stirlingshire in the third division on Saturday."

David Allan added, "Obviously, we'd have been happy for Cowdenbeath to go up to the second division but I'd rather it was done on merit. We'll just have to win the title this season."

McDougall and his partners are now at the helm of a club which only last week was described by Mazars as "hopelessly insolvent, without any discernible cash flow, and in need of an immediate cash injection".

The consortium is this week expected to produce a business plan intended to convince the Scottish Football League's management committee to allow the club to continue.

They must also lodge a bond based on what 18 home matches would generate should Livingston be unable to fulfil their fixtures, revenues and costs. On the field things aren't much better - the players turned out without pay only to lose their Alba Challenge Cup tie away to Queen of the South on 25th July.

They were then beaten 3-0 by Albion Rovers in the Co-operative Insurance Cup on 1st August.

Former Dundee United and Rangers defender Gary Bollan is expected to be named Livingston's new manager next week while McDougall's son-in-law, former Cowdenbeath manager Brian Welsh, has already been appointed head of youth development.

The 40-year-old had a two-year spell as Blue Brazil boss before being fired by the club's new owners following his side's relegation at the end of season 2007/08.

Gordon McDougall, who sold his stake in the club months before his son-in-law was sacked, followed Welsh out of the club three weeks later.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.

Central Fife Times Poll

Should Andy Gray and Richard Keys have lost their jobs in the Sky sexism row?

This Poll is now closed.

Yes (50.6%)

No (49.4%)

Follow @dunfermlinep