COWDEN boss Jimmy Nicholl was unhappy at his team’s defending against Hibs, another game which did not yield any points. Now they face the Championship leaders Hearts this Saturday at Tynecastle and he says they need to put on a better defensive show to have a chance of taking anything from the match.

The Blue Brazil have one point from their opening five fixtures and it really should have been at least two, with Hibs hitting goals in the closing minutes to steal all three points.

The manager was so disappointed for his young side but said, “We again lost avoidable goals and until that stops this is going to be a mighty struggle.

“The second-half saw us play very well, score two good goals to take the lead, and hit the bar, “But the penalty incident changed the pattern of the game and we needed to really concentrate hard late on to ensure we got something but we took our eye of what was needed in the closing seconds.

“There was no need for their player to be held for the penalty. He was a defender facing away from us but he was fouled.

“We have to stop making silly errors at key times in games.

“The lads were totally deflated after the game, they had put so much into it and came so close to getting something, only to see it disappear but it was avoidable.” The manager was pleased with the contributions from his new loan acquisitions Marcus Fraser, from Celtic and Callum Gallagher from Rangers.

“After the poor recent home shows this was a much better performance in many ways and I felt both Callum and Marcus played a very positive part in it,” he added. Looking ahead to this Saturday’s match with the league leaders he added, “It will be a very hard test for us but if we can just avoid losing goals at crucial moments in the games it would help, for Hibs were finding it hard going when the penalty incident gave them a chance to get back into the game.

“It was a needless thing to give the penalty away and we have to avoid making these sort of errors at Tynescastle.” Midfielder, Sammy Stewart (pictured), is making progress from his injury and should be back in a few weeks and striker Craig Sutherland is back running. Nat Wedderburn, who missed the Hibs game due his wife going into labour, is now a proud father and will be ready for action this weekend at Tynecastle. And the manager was hoping to fix up a midfielder from a Premiership side for the Tynecastle game.