COWDENBEATH'S pre-season preparations will go into full swing this weekend.

Training has been continuing over the past two weeks and the players have been shaping up well.

With their opening Betfred Cup-tie only two weeks away on Saturday it is now time for pitch time action and Cowdenbeath's friendly fixtures start on Saturday with a game against Civil Service Strollers at Christie Gillies Park, in Edinburgh, which has a 3pm start and then on Monday Premier League Dundee come to Central Park with a 7.45 kick-off.

These games will see the Blue Brazil have new players Kris Renton, Martin Scott, Dave Marsh and Jordyn Sheerin in action and manager Gary Bollan is keen to add a couple of players more before the big kick-off in a fortnight.

Said the Cowden boss: "The players have looked after themselves in the close season and have looked eager in training.

"It will be good to get some game time over the coming weeks before the Betfred and the Dundee match will be a good test for us.

"Both the Civil Service Strollers and 'Dee games will give the chance to see how the lads are progressing and a look at formations we could use in the campaigns ahead."

Dundee are expected to bring a strong side down to Cowdenbeath at the start of the week and the manager will also have a number of trialists included in both friendly line-ups as he seeks to complete his squad for the new season.

Meanwhile the first edition of the club's award winning programme, the Blue Brazilian, will be on sale at the friendly match against Dundee - albeit an abbreviated edition.

The Blue Brazilian won the League 2 Top match day Magazine Award for the second successive season.

The Cowden management team will be looking for a better disciplinary record in 2018/19

The SFA published the card stats for last season on Thursday and Cowdenbeath FC had a disciplinary points average per game last season of 6.84 (12 points for certain red cards and 6 for others, 3 for a yellow card). Given that is more than one point greater than the average for League 2 of 5.54 the club has been issued with a Notice of Complaint by the SFA under the terms of the annual Player Misconduct Review.

Cowdenbeath ranked 9th of the 10 teams in League 2 on this measure - the normal penalty is a four figure fine.