Raith Rovers 2, Cowdenbeath 0.

Betfred Cup Group C

Attendance-1480

COWDEN brought the curtain down on their league cup involvement with a narrow defeat at Stark’s Park on Saturday.

After losing an early goal Cowdenbeath struggled to get into the game but after the break they had much the better of things.

However, the damage had been done by that time with the Rovers turning around two up.

The team showed one change from the side which lost to Dundee with Matt McInally taking Kyle Miller’s place.

The windy conditions made life difficult for the teams and most of the football that was played came from the home side in the first period.

The Cowden defence again was short of ‘keeper Dave McGurn but Joe McGovern did his best to keep the hosts out and was given good support by the back four.

Fraser Mullen was having to work very hard in the central part of midfield and it meant that too often he was left with a difficult pass to make.

In attack Harvey Swann posed Rovers problems down the left but Josh Morris and Cammy Muirhead did not get a good enough supply of decent chances.

McGovern was in action in eight minutes when he pulled off a good save from a Greig Spence shot but a minute later he was beaten.

Former Blue Brazilian Liam Buchanan set up Lewis VAUGHAN who was unmarked and his shot from the centre of the penalty hit the back of the net.

Cowden were not putting a lot of pressure on the home side and in 32 minutes they went two down.

It was an all former Blue Brazilian effort with Spence finding BUCHANAN and he fired a sweet finish past McGovern.

Cowdenbeath opened the second period a bit more brightly and Morris got space 16 yards out and his low shot was blocked.

Rovers started to get more of the ball and Spence saw McGovern save well with 15 minutes left but seven minutes later Muirhead missed a decent chance when his effort from six yards flew inches wide.

Rovers finished strongly and Jonathan Court and Bobby Barr both went close but it was Swann who had the last try with another effort from the middle of the box but Kyle Benedictus blocked it.

Raith Rovers: Lennox (7); Thomson (6), McKay (6); Benedictus (7), Murray (6), Robertson (7); Matthews (7), Callachan (7), Buchanan (7) (Barr 61 (3)), Spence (8) (Osei-Opuku 84 (2)), Vaughan (7) (Court 86 (2)). Subs not used, Valentine, Davidson, Brian and Berry.

Cowdenbeath: Joe McGovern (6); Jamie Pyper (7), Shaun Rutherford (Hamish Thomson 73 (3)); Fraser Mullen (7), Scott Rumsby (7), David Syme (7); Robbie Buchanan (6), Matt McInally (6), Josh Morris (6) (Lyle Kellichan 68 (3)), Cammy Muirhead (6), Harvey Swann (6). Subs not used, Kyle Miller, John Ovenstone, Lewis Turnbull, Jordan Leslie and Blair Penman.

Referee-Kevin Graham (6).