Queen’s Park 1, Cowdenbeath 1.

Ladbrokes League 2

Attendance-404

A LAST minute penalty denied Cowdenbeath all three points at Hampden Park on Saturday.

Cowden had played very solidly throughout the game and had grabbed the lead with Matt Henvey’s first goal for the Blue Brazil.

And the Blues can count themselves unlucky not to have taken all three points from this one.

After the Spiders had made a good start Cowden took over and some good work by home ‘keeper Jordan Hart kept them out.

The visiting line-up saw new ‘keeper Aaron Lennox between the sticks, with Dave McGurn on the bench, and the signing certainly did not let his team mates down and it took a penalty to beat him.

Defensively Cowdenbeath were very solid, with centre backs Robbie Deas and Jamie Pyper marking tightly, while Fraser Mullen and Harvey Swann at full-back, were also very solid and at the same time eager to get forward to support their front men.

Kyle Miller and Gary Fraser had some really good spells in central midfield and Robbie Buchanan, on the left, kept the Blues moving forward.

In attack the speed of David Cox and Jordan Allan, allied to the craft of Kris Renton, had the QP rearguard struggling for spells but they just could not prize out the key second goal.

Henvey proved his worth as a substitute showing a lot of composure to fire his team ahead.

Queen’s certainly made the livelier start and in the first minute Alan Gow’s curling shot was well held by Lennox.

Minutes later Calvin McGrory tried his luck from 25 yards but good work by Lennox saw him hold the effort.

Cowden gradually started to stamp their authority in midfield and in 14 minutes Cox got in a header from close in and the ball rolled inches wide.

A minute later Queen’s threatened again when a Gow pass found Lewis Hawke and his shot from only 12 yards was held by Lennox.

Hawke had another chance on the half hour when a 10 yard header went just wide.

In the closing 15 minutes of the half Cowdenbeath piled forward and Cox and Renton tested Hart and there were other efforts that went just wide.

No goals at the break but Cowden went very, very close in the 55th minute when Cox struck the bar with a header which Hart just got a finger to.

However, over the next four minutes Gow produced two good saves from Lennox and in 65 minutes Blair Malcolm replaced Buchanan on the left hand side of midfield, however, in 68 minutes a David Galt pass across the face of the Cowden goal area was passed up by the home side.

HENVEY replaced Allan with eighteen minutes left and it took him only seven minutes to make an impact when he latched on to a good pass from Renton and slotted the ball under Hart from close in.

Queen’s were up against it but they defended well and in the closing minutes put pressure on the visitors.

Sub Ciaran Summers had a chance with six minutes left but he fired wildly wide.

Then with a minute left Pyper's tackle saw Galt go down in the Cowden box and Queen’s awarded a penalty and Scott McLEAN kept his cool to square the game.

In a really entertaining game Cowdenbeath would have felt they should have held on but Queen’s would feel they were worth a point.

Queen’s Park: Hart (7); Mortimer (6) (Summers 71 (3)), McLean (7); McKernon (6), McLaughlan (7), Gibson (6); McGrory (6) (East 87 (2)), Roberts (7), Hawke (7) (Moore 78 (3)), Galt (7), Gow (7). Subs not used, Peters, McLaren, Grant and McDougall.

Cowdenbeath: Aaron Lennox (8); Fraser Mullen (7), Harvey Swann (7); Jamie Pyper (7), Robbie Deas (7), Kyle Miller (6); David Cox (7), Jordan Allan (6) (Matt Henvey 72 (4)), Kris Renton (6) (Martin Scott 86 (2)), Gary Fraser (7), Robbie Buchanan (6) (Blair Malcolm 65 (3)). Subs not used, Jamie Todd, Kyle Sneddon, Jordyn Sheerin and Dave McGurn.

Referee-Steven Reid (7).