SATURDAY’S defeat to the league leaders could easily have had a much happier end for the Blue Brazil.

Cowdenbeath had enough chances to make a real impact on the match but a series of missed opportunities, including a failure from the spot, cost the Fifers dear.

The result at Ainslie Park, and Annan’s win over Albion Rovers, has put Cowden’s chances of catching the Borders side into the ‘slim’ category and they really must win against Stirling Albion at Central Park this Saturday to ensure their bid to finish in the top five this season succeeds.

The Blues played very well against Stirling, at Forthbank, in December and were unlucky to be on the wrong end of a penalty decision which saw them reduced to ten men, so some fans might say they are due a break this weekend.

Cowden boss Gary Bollan was very frustrated with the way the game went against Edinburgh City.

He commented: “We were always in the game on Saturday but the two goals conceded were not good from our point of view.

“To lose two goals in the first half hour of any game is not good but really we could have prevented both of them. At the first we were slow to close down Craig Thomson and at the second we allowed a long ball to bounce and instead of attacking the situation.

“However, during that period we had a few chances and missed a penalty at a very important stage in the game for as we had scored, it would have levelled the match.

“The second period saw us have a lot of good possession and a lot of shots at goal but we just could not get the goal which could have opened the game up.

“David Cox should not have reacted the way he did as the ball did hit a defender and rolled out for a corner and his frustration boiled over.

“It was all a bit disappointing but we again posed the leaders a lot of problems but at the end of the day no goals and no points.”

He added: “Stirling have had a good run of results until Saturday when they lost to Peterhead but we have played them twice and beaten them at Central Park and were unlucky at Forthbank, so there is no reason why we cannot win this game.

“If we can play as well as we did against Albion Rovers we can get the result we want to start moving back up the table, for we are not giving up on our aim to finish in the top four.

Kris Renton is fit and ready to keep leading the Cowden challenge and he will be a key figure if the Blues are to make the top five.

Defender Luc Bollan has completed his two match suspension and is available for this weekend.

David Cox is available after missing Tuesday's game at Peterhead.

There is a midweek game this coming Tuesday against Peterhead with a 7.45pm start at Central Park.