COWDENBEATH know their task this Saturday, simply beat Stenhousemuir at Central Park, but they will be without their top two strikers.

The defeat at Brechin, after the goalless home draw with Elgin City, sees Cowden falling way behind the top two so their task has to start winning again and that has to get underway this weekend.

However, both their top marksmen, David Cox and Kris Renton are suspended.

Stenny, while sitting on a point per game, have been producing some good performances and although they are in eighth place it took leaders Cove Rangers until the 87th minute to get the winner over them in Aberdeenshire last weekend.

Cowden never really got going at Brechin and they will certainly have to up their game this Saturday.

Manager Gary Bollan said: “We gave away two poor goals from our point of view and that gave Brechin confidence.

“The first period was pretty ordinary, to be truthful, but after the interval we started to play a lot better but had to wait until time added on to score which really wasn’t good enough.

“It was massively disappointing because we are much better than that and we have to get our act together quickly.

"We left ourselves a mountain to climb after our first-half performance when we had too many players not performing to the standard they are capable of

"We showed a lot more hunger after the break but we needed to show that from the first whistle. we are much better than what was shown on Saturday."

Looking ahead to the Stenhousemuir game he knows that they are an awkward team to tackle, although Cowden won 3-0 at Ochilview in the middle of their six wins in a row run.

He added: “It is important that we start steadily accumulating points again and we have to improve in every aspect of our performance from Brechin.

“Our defending has to be sharper and we have to get more shots on target.

“While we saw a lot of the ball at Brechin we only had a paltry few shots working their ‘keeper and that is not good enough.”

The Cowdenbeath boss will be without both the strikers who played a big part in their six wins in a row streak through suspension.

Kris Renton was red carded on Saturday and joins David Cox on the sidelines.

It means that the main marksman will be Jordan Allan and it could be that Connor Smith is asked to support the Hearts loanee as the small squad starts to get tested.

Centre midfielder, Kyle Miller, is nursing a back problem but he may be fit for this one although the manager may look to re-introduce Archie Thomas in that area of the park against Stenny along with Graham Taylor.

The important thing is winning to ensure they hang on to their third spot.