WHILE over the moon with the win over Stirling, Cowdenbeath manager Gary Bollan wants to see a whole lot better from his team when they go to Cove this Saturday.

The Blue Brazil even had the luxury of missing a penalty against Albion and still winning, but the manager was a little bit unhappy at the quality of play from the home side, especially in the first-half.

Albion had more of the play in the opening 45 minutes and Cowden ‘keeper Kevin Dabrowski had to make a couple of very competent stops during that period, mainly through to the use of punched clearances.

After the interval the Blue Brazil started to put Stirling under a lot more pressure after Kris Renton broke the deadlock, and they then missed a penalty when Robbie Buchanan was brought down in the box but the midfielder saw his spot-kick saved.

Mr Bollan simply felt that his team played way below their capabilities: “There was loads of effort and passion but the quality was in short supply from us.

“We did not retain the ball enough and too often wanted to simply hit the ball up the park to Kris Renton, which is not the way we want to play.

“Yes we wanted the win and got it but we have to do better in the weeks coming up.”

Mr Bollan was pleased with the way his defence dealt with the Stirling attack: “Harvey Swann started for the first time this season, having missed the pre-season work, and did really well at left-back while Jamie Pyper, Jamie Todd and Craig Barr did excellently in keeping things really tight at the back.

“It was good to get the three points on the board but we know we will have to play better than that at Cove this coming Saturday.

“They have started the season well and we will have to go there and defend as well as we did against Albion but use the ball better going forward.

“We cannot afford to give the ball away cheaply.”

Scorer of the winner against the Albion, Kris Renton, did feel that at times the team got too deep against Albion: “I felt we played much better in the second-half and created some decent chances but after we missed the penalty we started to fall back deeper and deeper and that allowed them to put us under some pressure.

“However, we defended well as a team and got the win we needed.

“It was good to get on the scoresheet, the ball came across the six yard box and I got there first to fire it home which was a good feeling.

“It is a tight division with everyone capable of winning games and we will go to Cove looking to win and get some momentum going.”

Cowden will have Fraser Mullen, picture with a man of the match award last season, is available with his suspension being completed and the manager may bring the full-back straight back in to his team for what will be a tough fixture.

Graham Taylor also did well when he came on against Stirling and may start.

Cove won their opening fixture convincingly at home the previous week and drew 4-4 at Albion Rovers on Saturday so have been scoring goals, but Cowden will be looking to prize out plenty of chances of their own in this one.