COWDENBEATH will have the chance to take on Lowland League side CS Strollers and Northern Premier League Broughty Athetic before they take on East Fife Fife in their opening Betfred Cup Section A tie at New Bayview.

Both friendlies have been given the green light by the SFA visa-vi the Covid regulations which is good news for the Blue Brazil as they bid to be ready for the real action.

But whether or not people will be allowed in to watch the Betfred games will not be decided until Monday October 5.

An inspection is anticipated by the club on Monday from the SFA to check whether or not Central Park will be able to host the Hearts Betfred tie on Saturday October 10.

Club secretary David Allan reported this week that the club has been doing a lot of work to ensure that the match with the Tynecastle men can take place at Cowdenbeath. The club has to ensure that there is suitable changing facilities for their home games as the coronavirus regulations require much more space per individual person than normal circumstances.

Said David: "There have been a number of theories on how we achieve what is needed and this is something that is facing every club in Scotland.

"We certainly know that the Premiership sides have had to do a lot of different things to get the required space for changing and it has not been an easy task."

Basically there will be five rooms utilised in the downstairs area for the visiting team, including both dressing rooms. Upstairs the board room and the lounge will be used by the home side.The match officials will be changing in the Club 135 lounge.

It is planned that the teams will go onto the pitch via the normal tunnel, but very separately.

Added the secretary: "The various rooms have to provide four square metres per individual and with coaches and physios part of it there is not a lot of space to play with.

"We have to ensure by the that the SFA come a calling everything is in place and ready to work to convince them that we have everything in place.

"It will certainly be very different from the normal but then we are not in a normal situation so it is what we can do to get a game on basically".

The Premiership sides have certainly had considerable problems with getting changing accommodation sorted out and many have been using hospitality suites to ensure they get the thumbs up from the authorities. Of course one thin they do not have to worry about is showers for these are not part of the Covid equation.

"We feel that everything we are doing is heading in the right direction but we won't know until the SFA people arrive," he added.

The secretary is totally unsure whether or not the East Fife or Hearts games will be open to fans.

"The announcement on that is not until October 5 and that doesn't leave a lot of time to get tickets distributed even for October 10 so as we speak it could well be that we can't have supporters at that one.

"That may change for the first League 2 game on Saturday October 17 against Annan Athletic at Central Park, but we will just have to wait and see."

Meanwhile manager Gary Bollan is still considering his options for a goalkeeper and he is also believed to be looking to fix up a finisher as well.