Brechin City 2, Cowdenbeath 0.

Ladbrokes SPFL League One

Attendance-408

ANOTHER bad day on the road for Cowden which saw them move back into the bottom two.

Bottom of the table City have been really struggling this season and Blues fans felt this was a chance for their team to get their first good away result.

And for spells things were going reasonably well for them, at Glebe Park on Saturday, but they lost a goal within three minutes of the second-half starting, missed a penalty and then had yet another man sent-off.

Dean Brett’s second yellow card saw him get his marching orders to become Cowdenbeath’s sixth red card this term.

Over the 90 minutes Cowdenbeath just did not do enough to get anything from the game and they are going to have to improve greatly to get a result at Ayr this week.

The defence worked hard throughout with Ali El-Zubaidi and Pat Scullion working so hard to keep Brechin out but the midfield, without the injured Andy Murdoch, failed to stay in the picture in the second period.

This let Brechin get a grip of things and they took advantage to close to within one point of Cowden.

Kyle Miller slotted into Murdoch’s position and in the early stages Cowden created a couple of decent chances and Gordon Smith tested his Graeme Smith in the Brechin goal in six minutes.

A minute later Sam Orritt,  in action despite his nose injury, fired a drive just too high a minute later but in 12 minutes Paul McLean got the break of the ball following a free-kick and fired a shot just wide.

For much of the half it was a story of a midfield battle but, in the closing minutes of the first period City came into the picture and Jamie Sneddon saved well from Robert Thomson then Andy Jackson fired over, before former Central Parker, Dene Shields, saw his low drive blocked then Darren Dods saw his shot cannon off the bar.

Cowdenbeath knew they had to start the second-half well but in 48 minutes they were caught out.

Thomson created the opening and David BATES was in the perfect spot to shoot home close close in.

Things got worse for the Fifers two minutes later when top scorer Greig Spence had to go off injured with Luke Armstrong subbing for him.

Jackson and Shields both went close for Brechin and in 63 minutes they grabbed the key second goal. Jonathon TIFFONEY was given too much space in the Cowden box and his low shot gave Sneddon no chance.

City who almost grabbed a third with a Thomson header which hit the bar. But with seven minutes left  Cowden had a chance to get back into the game. Buchanan was hauled down in the box by City’s Johnston and got up to take the spot kick only to see Smith save his effort.

Within seconds Brett was red carded for a second yellow and that was that another away defeat.

 

Brechin City: Smith (8); McLean (7), Dyer (6); Dodds (6), Bates (7), Fusco (6); Tiffoney (7) (McCormack 73 (3)), Molloy (6) (R Smith 56 (3)), Jackson (7), Thomson (7) (Johnston 74 (2)), Shields (7)). Subs not used, Weatherston, Perry, Montgomery and O’Neill.

Cowdenbeath: Jamie Sneddon (7); Dean Brett (5), Kenny Adamson (6); Pat Scullion (6), Ali El Zubaidi (7), Declan Hughes (6); Gordon Smith (6), Kyle Miller (6) (Craig Johnston 58 (3)), Greig Spence (6) (Luke Armstrong 52 (3)), Robbie Buchanan (6), Sam Orritt (6) (Liam Callaghan  69 (3)). Subs not used, John Armstron, Chris Kane, Mo Yaqub and Shaun Hunter.

Referee-Gavin Ross (6).