COLIN NISH insists that gatecrashing the top four remains Cowdenbeath's aim – and has challenged his players to start a winning run this weekend.

The Blue Brazil slipped to third bottom of the table after their home clash with Forfar Athletic fell victim to the weather on Saturday, with Stranraer - victors at Central Park in Cowden's last match - jumping above them after beating bottom dogs Brechin City.

But in what is proving to be a congested League One table, Nish's men sit just six points adrift of this weekend's opponents Airdrieonians, who occupy the final promotion play-off spot.

Cowdenbeath have two games in hand over the Diamonds and the Blues boss is confident his side can be in the shake-up for promotion if they can find a return to the form that yielded three successive wins in December.

Nish said: "We want to try and get back to the Championship and a play-off spot is what we have to aim for now. The players know how good they are they are and if we can manage to go on a run like we did before then I believe we have every chance of getting there. On our day, we're capable of beating anyone but we'll get Saturday dealt with first and foremost.

"It will be a tough match, especially on the astro pitch through there which will make it a completely different game as to what it would be at home. I was at Airdrie's game with Dunfermline on Friday and they did well to get the three points because it is a tough place to go, but we're looking forward to the game.

"We've got two games to catch up on so the points are there to be played for. It gives us extra incentive and I am confident that we have every chance of making the play-offs if we can get back the performance levels from before the Stranraer game."

January was a stop-start month on the pitch for Cowden, with an away clash at Ayr United ahead of the Stranraer defeat joining the Loons clash in being called off.

The other two matches that did take place resulted in a narrow New Year derby defeat at Dunfermline and a Scottish Cup loss at Rangers, both of which came in the first two weeks of the month before the weather put paid to two of their last three scheduled league encounters.

Nish continued: "We've not really been able to play since the Rangers game and we've not been helped with the weather. We were flat against Stranraer; we hadn't had a game the week before but we'd also played Dunfermline and Rangers, which are huge games for us, so maybe there was a bit of a comedown going into it.

"That's not an excuse though because we have to deal with it the same as other teams, and games against Stranraer are just as important for us.

"We'll have a bounce game this week and the good thing is that Ross and Declan will have had another couple of weeks training since the Stranraer game which will help us.

"Kyle Miller is still out but is making his way back, and Jack Beaumont is nearing fitness, so he'll be like a new signing for us. Lewis Milne still needs a bit of time; we probably threw him in at the deep end and if we had other options, we probably wouldn't have brought him back as quickly as we did.

"But once we get the boys who have been out injured back they will improve us."