Cowdenbeath 2 University of Stirling 4
Lowland League Cup Quarter Final

A COLLAPSE in the second half saw Cowden bow out of the Lowland League Cup in the Quarter Final stage.

Defensive frailties saw University of Stirling gifted three goals at Central Park on Saturday.

A promising first period performance from the hosts was forgotten as Uni ran away with the game after going behind.

If new Cowden boss Calum Elliot needed any evidence of where he needs to strengthen for the new season, this game, against a side who finished fourth in the Lowland League, underlined it.

Yet in the first period the Blue Brazil, short of several players through illness and injury, put together some good moves and scored a fine goal and went in at the break very much in the tie.

But within 20 second-half minutes they were trailing by three goals and heading out of the tournament.

Some really poor defending was the root cause of the defeat, and it reminded the home fans of why their team finished in the bottom five of the Lowland League.

In 10 minutes Cowden had the first shot when Scott Sinclair knocked the ball down to Lucas Berry 12 yards out, and his volley just cleared the bar.

Then Sinclair fired in a shot, from 10 yards, which hit the inside of the left hand Uni post and ran along the line, but the ball stayed out.

In 25 minutes Sam Newman had to head over his own bar after Danny Farrell missed a cross from the left and Cameron McKinley’s header was heading for the empty net.

Then on the half hour the Blues took the lead, when Newman’s cross was met by David Struthers who headed home from the edge of the six-yard-box.

However, the lead lasted only four minutes, when some poor defensive work by the home side let McKinley score from only seven yards out.

Then four minutes into the second-half the Students went ahead when James Berry was lying handy at the back post to head home after a cross from the right eluded the home defence.

As the Cowden challenge disintegrated, Euan McGill made it 3-1 in 57 minutes, after a James Russell pass, and a fourth came from another corner in 63 minutes, when the ball bounced off Mackenzie Williamson past Farrell.

But the Blues came back in 68 minutes, when Sinclair’s shot took a deflection to beat the Stirling ‘keeper, but there was to be no dramatic comeback as the game ended 4-2 to the visitors.