Cowdenbeath 1, Stirling Albion 2.

Ladbrokes League 2,

Attendance-371

COWDENBEATH sunk to a third successive defeat with this very ordinary show against ten man Stirling.

They gave away two very poor goals, and missed a couple of easy chances, to make it a bleak day.

The first period saw the elements not really help Cowdenbeath’s cause, at Central Park on Saturday.

They defended really poorly at times and Albion got both their goals through errors.

The midfield too struggled at times and did not create a lot of chances especially when Stirling were reduced to ten men.

Matt Henvey got the nod in the first period but did not get a lot of good service and it was the same for Jordan Allan who replaced him, he had one good effort but that was about it.

It was a very scrappy game, not helped by the strong wind, but the overall home performance was very disappointing.

Cowden booked the wind and the rain in the first period but in the opening minutes neither side could get the ball down and make passes.

A clever piece of work by Peter MacDonald gave Albion a chance in seven minutes when his pass set up Darren Smith but good work by Fraser Mullen cleared the danger.

Then Mullen provided a chance for the Blues with deep cross and Robbie Buchanan got to it first but clipped the ball wide, then five minutes later another Mullen cross was met by Kris Renton but his header went past Calum Ferrie’s right hand post.

Smith made a great run for Stirling and his cross was a good one but before MacDonald could get to it Robbie Deas cleared.

However, in 33 minutes Albion took the lead. After it seemed that Cox had been fouled on the edge of the Albion box and the referee ignored home appeals, the ball was cleared long and the Cowden defence was caught out by a fine Max Wright cross and SMITH powered a header into the net from seven yards out.

Then three minutes from the break the visitors attacked again and Danny Jardine’s cross from the right saw Smith’s 10 yard shot go inches wide, but in time added on at the interval Smith was red carded for a wild tackle on Buchanan.

Cowden brought on Allan for Henvey at the break and they started the second-half well and forced three successive corners but Stirling managed to survive.

A needless foul by Kyle Miller in 50 minutes gave Albion another opportunity to get in a meaningful shot but Wright’s 22 yard effort was straight at Aaron Lennox.

However, in 56 minutes the Blues levelled when Renton sent over a pin-point cross from the right and COX was perfectly placed to clip the ball past the stranded Ferrie.

Cowden threatened again six minutes later when Gary Fraser’s angled cross was met by Luc Bollan and the ‘keeper held his header and in 65 minutes Allan’s header was brilliantly finger tipped over the bar by Ferrie.

In 71 minutes some crazy defending by the hosts let the ten man visitors go ahead. Somehow the home defence failed to deal with a pass into the box and MacDONALD was left with a tap in after Lennox and Deas left the ball to each other.

But with seven minutes left Renton set up sub Jordyn Sheerin but with just the ‘keeper to beat from ten yards but unaccountably he fired wide. It kind of summed up Cowden's day.

Cowdenbeath: Aaron Lennox (6): Fraser Mullen (6), Luc Bollan (6); Robbie Buchanan (6), Robbie Deas (6), Kyle Miller (6); David Cox (7), Matt Henvey (6) (Jordan Allan 46 (5) (5)), Kris Renton (7), Gary Fraser (6), Harvey Swann (6) (Jordyn Sheerin 80 (2)). Subs not used, Jamie Pyper, Blair Malcolm, Kyle Sneddon, Martin Scott and David McGurn.

Stirling Albion: Ferrie (8); McGeachie (7), Allan (6); Hughes (7) (Glover 70 (3)), Wright (7) ( Docherty (7); Marr (6), Banner (7), Jardine (7) (Hamilton 80 (3)), Smith (5), McDonald (6). Subs not used, Thomson, Ashmore, McLaughlin, Mackin and Binnie.

Referee-Mike Roncone (6).