Cowdenbeath 1, Hamilton Accies 1.

SPFL Championship Attendance-497.

IN a dramatic finish Cowdenbeath collected what could be a vital survival point from promotion chasing Hamilton Accies.

With the game looking to be heading for a goalless draw as it drifted into time added on, at Central Park on Saturday, Accies grabbed what they thought was the strike which would take them clear at the top of the table, but the Blues struck back and with just seconds to go Thomas O’Brien fired in the leveller.

It was no more than Cowdenbeath deserved for they went toe-to-toe with the team which has been racking up wins over the past two months.

Goalkeeper Seb Usai led the way with a series of sound stops and he received excellent backing from Nat Wedderburn, John Armstrong and O’Brien and then the latter stepped up to grab his first goal in two years to earn a point.

In midfield Sammy Stewart covered every blade of grass while Chris Kane and Kyle Miller also put in a hard shift.

Cowden, not surprisingly, had to do a lot of defending but they did it well and were worth their draw.

Accies made a good start and Louis Longridge made a good run down the right and sent over a fine cross in the fifth minute but excellent work by Cowden’s Dean Brett kept the scoreline blank.

In the home reply Rory McKeown latched on to a good ball from Miller but his touch let him down and Kevin Cuthbert raced from his goal to gather.

In ten minutes Tony Andreu tried his luck from 25 yards and it took a fine finger-tip save from Usai to keep it out. In 14 minutes Mikey Devlin nodded a long ball down and Jason Scotland reached it first but Wedderburn put in a timely challenge with Usai clearing up the danger.

At the other end McKeown gathered a loose clearance from his own throw and his first time shot roared just wide but there were no goals at the break.

Hamilton looked lively in the opening minutes of the second-half when Darian MacKinnon’s low 25 yarder bounced to safety off Usai’s right hand post but at the other end Brett latched onto Sammy Stewart’s pass and his right foot shot was held by Cuthbert.

Accies had the bulk of possession and Cowden had to keep working hard to contain the promotion challengers.

Andreu’s free-kick from the edge of the box tested Usai but a goal seldom looked likely.

Then as the game went into time added on Accies shocked the hosts with a goal from substitute Mickael ANTON-CURIER who beat the home off-side to squeeze the ball over Usai.

But with seconds left, after a series of long throws had the put the Hamilton defence in trouble, O’BRIEN found himself only eight yards out and with no one near him, he blasted the ball past Cuthbert to earn what could be a vital point.

Cowdenbeath: Seb Usai (7); Dean Brett (7), Rory McKeown (7); Thomas O’Brien (8), John Armstrong (7), Nat Wedderburn (9); Sammy Stewart (8), Kyle Miller (7), Kane Hemmings (6) (Jon Robertson 88 (3)), Greg Stewart (6) (Lewis Milne (78) (3)), Chris Kane (7). Subs not used, Jamie Stevenson, Jordan Morton, David Gold, Liam Callaghan and Thomas Flynn.

Hamilton Accies: Cuthbert (7); Gordon (7), Devlin (7); Canning (6), Keatings (5) (Anton-Curier 58 (4), Routledge (7); Kilday (6), Longridge (7) (Ryan 80 (3)), Andreu (6), Scotland (7) (Crawford 90 (2), MacKinnon (7). Subs not used, Gillespie, Neil, Docherty, and Currie.

Referee-Kevin Clancy (6).