Cowdenbeath 1, Broxburn Athletic 1.

William Hill Scottish Cup 2nd round

Attendance-767

A DISAPPOINTING home performance has left Cowden with a difficult hurdle to overcome to make the third round of the William Hill Scottish Cup and a tie with Inverurie Loco.

East of Scotland League Premier League team Broxburn are unbeaten this season and they worked exceptionally hard against the Blues and even found enough to grab an equaliser as time was running out, at Central Park on Saturday.

Cowden were short of four of their normal team with Motherwell not releasing Peter Morrison for the tie and Hearts doing similar with Chris Hamilton and Connor Smith, while Kris Renton was unavailable.

This upset the balance of the team and in the first-half especially with their normal fluid movement was missing.

The second period saw a lot better from them but they missed a couple of good chances after they took the lead and got caught out late in the game.

Jamie Pyper replaced Hamilton and did well throughout the game while Graham Taylor also had a reasonable outing in Smith’s place.

Jordan Allan partnered David Cox in attack as Renton’s replacement but found the big Broxburn rearguard difficult to get the better of.

Goalkeeper Sam Henderson did pretty well but he found himself unsighted at the leveller and could not stop the shot.

Broxburn got the first shot on target in three minutes when John Grant’s shot was held by stand-in ‘keeper Henderson.

Then soon after Greg Binnie made a good run and his shot was headed over to safety by Pyper.

In 20 minutes Cowden threatened when Fraser Mullen’s cross was perfect for Cox and his header was straight at ‘keeper Connor Wallace.

On the half hour, the home defence was caught square and Nicky Locke burst into the Cowden box but he dragged his 14 yarder inches wide.

A Mullen corner, shortly after, flew across the face of the Broxburn six yard box and and Shaun Harrison cleared but soon after Wallace made a hash of a clearance and had to work hard to block Allan’s shot.

Six minutes from the break Mullen’s free-kick was perfect for Todd but he fired his seven yard header wide.

Broxburn attacked strongly on the re-start and with 47 minutes on the clock Henderson saved well from a good Gordon Donaldson header.

Cowdenbeath had a chance two minutes later when Allan picked up a loose ball outside the Athletic box and moved inside but instead of squaring to the unmarked Cox he fired the ball too strongly across the face of the six yard box and the danger was cleared.

Broxburn had the ball in the net in 55 minutes but Alex Miller was clearly off-side as he netted.

Shortly after Cox got on the end of a cross and his header brought out a brilliant save from Wallace.

Then in 72 minutes Cowdenbeath took the lead. The ball was whipped into the Broxburn box and with the visiting defence hesitating COX’s overhead kick flew past Wallace from eight yards.

However, Broxburn levelled in 87 minutes when the home defence failed to pick up LOCKE and his low shot beat Henderson from 12 yards.

The visitors held on to ensure the replay in West Lothian this coming Saturday..

Cowdenbeath: Sam Henderson (7); Fraser Mullen (6), Jamie Pyper (7); Jamie Todd (6), Craig Barr (6), Kyle Miller (7); David Cox (6), Robbie Buchanan (6), Jordan Allan (6), Archie Thomas (7), Graham Taylor (6). Subs not used, Euan Valentine, Harvey Swann, Kyle Sneddon, Ross Pollock, Craig Easton, Jacob Glass and Mac Whyte.

Broxburn Atheletic: Wallace (7); Gavin (6), Donaldson (7); Harrison (7), Locke (8) (Richards 89 (2)), Scott (6); Beesley (7), Grant (6) (Kelly 79 (3)), Miller (7), Binnie (6) (Nimmo 72 (3), Ross (7). Subs not used, Gibson, Townsley and Donoghue.

Referee- Chris Graham (7).