Hearts 5, Cowdenbeath 1.

SPFL Championship Attendance-15,594 THINGS went pretty well for Cowdenbeath in the opening half of this game against the league leaders, but at the end of the day the Blues ended up well beaten.

Level at the break, Cowden were swamped in the second-half, at Tynecastle on Saturday, when they had no answer to the swift moving Jambos.

The Cowdenbeath challenge was not helped by the loss of Nat Wedderburn in the first 20 minutes but the fact was, in the second period, they could not handle Hearts' midfield control.

Cowden had another new player in their line-up, St Mirren midfielder Declan Hughes, but after a good first hour he found himself forced out of the game by the hosts.

The Cowden defence kept battling away but the longer the game went the more difficult it came for the visitors to keep tabs on the fast moving Hearts attackers and at the end of the day the Blue Brazil were well out of the picture.

The midfield was without injured Lewis Milne but even the talented youngster would have found it difficult to turn the tide.

Hearts opened the game in a positive frame of mind and Cowdenbeath were forced to defend and they survived a couple of close shaves only to go behind in the 15th minute.

In a concerted home piece of pressure Danny Wilson provided the ammunition and Billy KING fired the ball past Robbie Thomson from around 15 yards.

King then threatened again three minute later but in the 21st minute the Blues levelled the game when Callum GALLAGHER fired the ball past Neil Alexander after good build-up by Cowden saw Kudus Oyenuga’s shot parried by Neil Alexander.

Then as Hearts looked a little stunned Oyenuga saw his right foot shot saved.

Seconds later Wedderburn limped off to be replaced by Darren Brownlie but the visitors kept the Jambos at bay and the only real danger came shortly before the break when Alim Ozturk saw his shot saved by Thomson.

Hearts started the second-half in complete charge and forced Cowdenbeath on to the back foot and took the lead in 48 minutes when Jamie WALKER got his head to an Adam Eckersley cross and his effort beat Thomson.

Six minutes later it was 3-1. Walker went down in the box, under Brownlie’s tackle, and Osman SOW blasted the spot-kick into the net.

Cowden were playing second fiddle now and it started to become a damage limitation situation, although in 58 minutes Sean Higgins saw his shot saved then six minutes later Oyenuga shot wide, but with 12 minutes left the game was put out of their reach.

Sow did the spadework and sub Dale CARRICK fired a 20 yarder past Thomson.

CARRICK was proving a handful for the Fifers and he hit the bar before, with four minutes remaining, he shot home number five to complete a bad day for Cowdenbeath.

Hearts: Alexander (7); Paterson (6), Eckersley (7); Wilson (8), Ozturk (7), Robinson (7); King (7) (Carrick 72 (4)), Gomis (7) (Holt 89 (2)), Walker (9), Keatings (7) (El Hassnaoui 68 (3)), Sow (8). Subs not used, Hamilton, Beith, McKay and McGhee.

Cowdenbeath: Robbie Thomson (6); Dean Brett (6), Iain Campbell (5) (Craig Johnston 62 (3)); Marcus Fraser (6), John Armstrong (7), Nat Wedderburn (3) (Darren Brownlie 24 (5)); Jon Robertson (5), Declan Hughes (6), Kudus Oyenuga (5) (Dan Jurisic 75 (2), Sean Higgins (7), Calum Gallagher (6). Subs not used, Thomas O’Brien, Chris Kane, Kyle Miller and Thomas Flynn.

Referee-Craig Charleston (7).