ANOTHER nightmare end to a game, at Elgin, was at least softened a little for Cowden by the fact that Edinburgh City and Clyde were well beaten in their matches and so the gap at the foot of Ladbrokes League 2 remains the same.

But the bare facts show that Cowdenbeath are already starting to desperately need a win to turn their season around.

The Blues have not won a game since August and while the majority of their defeats have been by the odd goal, they need to win games to have any chance of avoiding the play-offs.

And things don’t get any easier this Saturday when they head for Stenhousemuir, who are sitting third top and desperate to at least make the promotion play-offs.

Cowden started Saturday’s game well and looked in the first period as if they could win the match but two bookings for midfielder Kyle Miller seconds into the second period completely changed all that.

The ten men fought hard and the defence did brilliantly, but alas a ball fired into the box with only five minutes left caught them out.

Manager Gary Bollan was very frustrated by Saturday’s happenings: “We were doing pretty well in the first-half and could have been ahead at half-time but the red card changed the whole flow of the match.

“The thing is that if the referee sees footage of the incident he will see that Kyle won the ball and the second yellow was not warranted. The sending off with almost 45 minutes to play completely changed the game.”

He felt that the new players he has brought in did well at Elgin but he was unhappy at midfielder Blair Malcolm’s injury recurrence which saw him have to go off after only 24 minutes and he is unlikely to feature this Saturday.

The manager added: “Losing Blair was a big blow but still the lads adapted well with the new players Aiden Malone and Ben Reilly making a good contribution, but the closing stages saw us struggle a man short.

“Clearly we will have to go to Stenny without the suspended Robbie Buchanan and Kyle Miller and Blair is unlikely to make it, so the resources will be stretched against a very good side.

“However, if we can defend as resolutely as we did at Elgin we can look to pose Stenhousemuir problems.”

Mr Bollan has brought in Malone from Linlithgow Rose, Reilly from East Fife and Jordan Hornby from Dundee United, and he may look to add another player before Saturday.

Meanwhile striker Cammy Muirhead has a knock too but the manager is hopeful he will be fit to join the squad for the trip to Ochilview.