THE battling Blue Brazil’s point off Clyde has taken them to within three points of fourth top of Ladbrokes League 2 Elgin City.

Cowdenbeath fought back well after going a goal down early in the game and a positive second period saw them grind out a deserved point and now they can go to meet second top Peterhead with confidence.

Then the following week they entertain leaders Edinburgh City so it is a two game spell which could outline the quality of the Cowdenbeath quest to get into the top four.

Manager Gary Bollan lost his father during the week but was determined to be at the game, although he was not on his usual touchline beat on Saturday, leaving the team in the hands of his assistant Mark Fotheringham and first team coach Ian Flaherty.

Mr Fotheringham was proud of the way the team rallied in the second period and started to more than look capable of winning the match.

He said: “To be honest we had to put out a side which had a number of players struggling with injuries.

“David Cox and Kris Renton had hamstring problems and Josh Skelly also carried an injury and it meant they were not as sharp as normal but they went out there and put in a hard shift for the club.

“Indeed, in the second-half we were by far the better side and really we were the team that looked like winning the game in the closing stages.

“I was very proud of the way we handled the game against a very experienced Clyde team who have been doing very well this season. Dave McGurn led the way in the first-half with some fine saves and the lads responded.

“It would have been nice to win the game but at the end of the day a point was probably fair over the 90 minutes.”

The assistant boss was pleased with sub Jordan Allan’s contribution to the game having come on as a substitute for the injured Blair Malcolm before the interval.

He pepped up the home attacking options and scored a well taken leveller and came close to winning the game late on.

Said the assistant: “Jordan has not had it easy over the past couple of seasons but we are prepared to give him the opportunity to prove himself and he really gave Clyde problems when he went on for Blair.

“He took the goal well but also set up another couple of chances and really did well.”

Jordan said about the game: “They started really well and got the first goal but we slowly came into it and had a couple of decent chances before the break.

“I was delighted to be able to get on the end of the chance just after half-time and slot it away and we looked like we could get a second in the closing stages.

“It is great to be involved in the game again and hopefully I can show the manager what I can do over the next few weeks.”

Looking ahead to the match at Peterhead Mr Fotheringham is hopeful that Blair Malcolm will recover from his knock and feels that Martin Scott is getting very close to being back in action.

Pat Scullion might take a week or so longer to recover from his injury but Robbie Buchanan’s red card at Coatbridge will see him sit out the Peterhead game.

He added: “Blair is a fast healer and it was more of an impact injury so hopefully he will be ready for the trip north.

“Robbie looks like he will still be out but if we can compete like we did in the last hour of Saturday’s match we can give Peterhead a real game”.

Harvey Swann was a half-time sub for Josh Skelly, who was also suffering an injury, and he showed enough that he could fill one of the left sided roles at Balmoor.