COWDENBEATH kept their place in the SPFL and now everyone is looking to how things will be organised for the 2017-2018 season.

But looking back on the season just gone the key period was between October 1 and March 4 when 18 league games, or half a season to be truthful, was played with only three wins, a draw and 14 defeats recorded.

Only ten points were accrued out of 48 and the remarkable thing is that despite the gravity of the situation the Blues almost avoided the relegation play-offs.

Indeed, despite the horrible run which cost manager Liam Fox his job, the Blue Brazil finished the season positively and under new boss Gary Locke they played 11 games, won four, drew four and lost three with the 16 points gained coming so close to saving the day and avoiding the play-off with East Kilbride.

And during that horror half season with only three wins, the team was recorded as having six successive penalty misses.

had even three of these been converted they would have gained enough points to avoid finishing bottom.

Striker Kris Renton, signed from the junior ranks last summer played the most games, 39 and was top scorer with ten goals, while midfielder Fraser Mullen played 38 times but strangely only scored three goals, although his strike against East Kilbride was a vital one.

Fellow midfielder Kyle Miller made 32 starts but scored only once, while centreback Gerry McLauchlan also played 32 matches.

The club only mustered seven shut-outs all season with Dave McGurn having three of them from 27 starts while Jamie Sneddon had four from 17 games.

Scott Rumsby joined up in January from Peterhead and skippered the side in the closing quarter of the campaign and played 18 games at the back and scored twice.

Jamie Pyper played 25 games at the back while Shaun Rutherford started 28 in the left-back area plus made three appearances from the bench.

The lack of goals was a clear reason for the poor runs without wins and while Renton hit double figures next was Dale Carrick who scored seven in his 18 games on loan from Livingston.

On loan Hearts man, Nikolay Todorov, scored five times from 20 starts while, Dean Brett, who had to leave the club due to gambling on games, scored three times in 23 appearances as did Lewis Moore from 24 starts.

Clearly next season a higher goal output will be needed.

However, manager Gary Locke was delighted with the attitude the Cowden players showed in the run-in: "Straight away we noticed that the team was in no way as bad as their results suggested and they started to pick up results and really with a bit of luck, we could have got the points we needed to avoid the play-off.

"However, they tackled a confident East Kilbride well and in the dramatic finish at Central Park scored five excellent penalties.

"Their attitude throughout was first class and I could not have asked for more from them."