Cowdenbeath 0, Peterhead 4.

Ladbrokes League 2

Attendance-301

THE visitors looked every inch a top four side in this game but to be honest Cowdenbeath made it all too easy for them.

Cowden fielded a team which was built to score goals, at Central Park on Saturday, but some slack work in the first 25 minutes saw them completely out of the picture by half-time.

Defensive work has been the team’s strength this season but in the opening 25 minutes Peterhead carved out chance after chance and also converted three of them to put the game out of reach of the Blues.

While the defence was under early pressure, a lot of the problems came from the midfield area where Cowden did not really carry enough on the flanks to worry the visitors.

Peterhead flooded through to create chances and grabbed three goals early on to make the points safe.

There were few pass marks on a bad day for the Blues but ‘keeper Joe McGovern produced some good saves and David Syme and Scott Rumsby recovered, after a shaky start, to at least make it harder for the Aberdeenshire side as time went on.

Peterhead made a great start to the match and McGovern parried an Allan Smith drive and then Rory McAllister saw his shot go inches wide inside 90 seconds and in three minutes they took the lead.

Jason Brown did the spadework for SMITH and he nipped in to prod the ball home inside the Cowden six yard box.

Cowdenbeath, with Cammy Muirhead playing wide on the left, were losing the midfield battle and in 17 minutes Peterhead grabbed a second when McAllister’s flick set up SMITH who had time to turn and blast past McGovern from seven yards out.

Then five minutes later it was 3-0. The visitors piled forward and the home defence was left chasing shadows as Willie GIBSON fired a low angled show wide of the ‘keeper from seven yards out.

In 32 minutes Cowden had their first real chance when a Shaun Rutherford corner was miss-punched by ‘keeper Greg Fleming but Muirhead blasted high over the bar from only 10 yards out, then two minutes later Josh Morris produced a fine save from Fleming with a fierce 18 yarder.

Cowden started the second period with Matt McInally off and Jack Whittaker in his place but the early stages saw both teams have possession without creating chances.

In 65 minutes Cowden were denied by a goal line clearance by Jamie Stevenson after Ali Smith’s effort beat Fleming.

But the former Cowden man became an attacker when his 30 yard shot produced a great save from McGovern but six minutes later the visitors scored again when Scott BROWN held off two home challenged before turning the ball wide of McGovern from 15 yards.

Cowdenbeath: Joe McGovern (6); Matt McInally (4) (Jack Whittaker 46 (5)), Shaun Rutherford (6); Fraser Mullen (7), Scott Rumsby (6), David Syme (6); Robbie Buchanan (5), Ali Smith (5) (Ben Stirling 71 (3)), Josh Morris (6), Kyle Miller (5), Cammy Muirhead (5) (Brad Smith 57 (3)). Subs not used, Charlie Denton, Ryan Connelly, Harvey Swann and Dave McGurn.

Peterhead: Fleming (7); Jason Brown (6), Robertson (7); McIlduff (7), Ferry (7), S Brown (7); Stevenson (7), Lawrence (7) (Jordan Brown 66 (3)), McAllister (6) (McLean 71 (3)), Smith (8) (Adams 71 (3)), Gibson (7). Subs not used, Riley, Diboko and Hobday.

Referee- David Lowe (7).