COWDENBEATH saw Livingston and Alloa close the gap on them in the bottom three to six points with Saturday's and Tuesday's results so when the Blues head to Palmerston this weekend they have to be looking to take a point from the match with Queen of the South at least.

Livi’s draw at Rangers has kept their hopes of creeping out of the bottom two alive and Cowden really have to look to pick up at least seven points from their next five games, and on Tuesday the Wasps drew 2-2 at Ibrox to go above Cowden on goal difference.

The Blue Brazil take on the Falkirk at Central Park next Tuesday night in a re-arranged game after the Palmerston match then head for Ibrox on the Saturday, before having homes games with Dumbarton and Livi so it is a busy and important phase ahead.

Cowdenbeath boss Jimmy Nicholl felt that his team had worked well to their pre-match plan in the opening half hour against Hibs but had ‘shot themselves in the foot’ in the period before half-time.

“We knew that Hibs like to move the ball about the pitch quickly and we had to work hard to contain them in the opening stages,” said the manager.

“It was working pretty well as they had not created many good openings but the two goals conceded in two minutes were bad from our point of view.

“The first one saw us give the scorer the time to shape up his shot and the second was the result of a pass which went horribly wrong and that took the game away from us.” He added, “To be honest our passing was not really good enough in the first-half for we too often gave the ball away cheaply and several decent moves broke down without anything coming out of them.

“We made a change at the break to try and put more pressure on the Hibs midfield with Jon Robertson going on for Darren Brownlie and we certainly had more possession but did not create too many clear chances.” The Cowdenbeath boss is aware that going into the last quarter his team needs points from the next few fixtures.

“We go to Palmerston on Saturday and Queen of the South are very much in the promotion play-off race and will be offering nothing easy for us, so we need to produce our best form to take anything from this match,” he went on.

“It is important that we use the ball well and create and take chances, for we need to win games to achieve our goal.

“We have to go into every remaining match looking to get points so we need everyone to be in top form.” Dean Brett limped off against Hibs and will be getting a scan this week while John Herron missed out through injury on Saturday but should be fit for the Queen’s game.

Brett is unlikely to make it but Lewis Toshney is back available again as is Kyle Miller, so a replacement is available.

Also available will be striker Colin Nish and he may well partner Sean Higgins up front as Cowden search for much needed goals.

Then Falkirk are at Central Park on Tuesday night with a 7.45pm start, another game Cowden need points from.