COWDENBEATH would normally have been expected this week to be preparing to head for Glebe Park this Saturday in their bid to stay in the bid for a top four place in Ladbrokes League 2 and a promotion play-off spot.

However, the decision by the SFA and SPFL Joint Board to suspend fixtures meantime, through the spread of coronavirus, has seen all the clubs in Ladbrokes League 2 wonder when they will see action again.

The break has come with Cowden sitting in fourth place, two points behind third top Elgin City and a point ahead of Queen’s Park.

It is all set up for a really exciting run-in, but the Blue Brazil fans will currently be wondering when they will see their favourites back in action.

And manager Gary Bollan is exactly in the same position and is looking at keeping his players fit for the re-start of hostilities.

He said this week: “This is the strangest situation. Clearly I fully understand the reason to suspend games and we really have to ensure that we are ready to go at any time the authorities decide to get things moving again.

“We have a full quarter to go and 27 points to play for, so the ball is very much in our own court to make the top four.”

He was very disappointed to see his team fail to return from Elgin last midweek with at worst a point, a result which has let City go ahead of Cowdenbeath for the first time since September.

Ahead at the interval Cowden lost three goals in the first 23 minutes of the second-half to go down 3-2.

He said: “We gave away three avoidable goals and really we should not have lost it.

“We got very sloppy in some aspects of our play and you cannot afford to do that against a team who have some really good finishers.

“So we really caused ourselves many of our own problems and it has given them a two point lead over us going into the last quarter, although we have a game in hand.”

How this key stage of the season will pan out depends on how the Integrated Response Board of the SFA/SPFL deals with the situation.

As our article on page 39 indicates, if the season was to be ended as the tables stand the Blues would be in the Ladbrokes League 2 play-offs but how that situation would be accepted by clubs in the four divisions would be quite difficult to ponder.

As Mr Bollan said: “We will look to keep the players as fit as we can in the interim period to ensure that, if and when, we get the go-ahead to re-start the campaign we are totally ready.”