Broughty Athletic 1, Cowdenbeath 2.

COWDENBEATH broke new ground once again when they visited Whitton Park in Dundee on Saturday and it was another good friendly workout.

Opponents Broughty Athletic were in second place in last season’s East Region Junior Superleague when the season was terminated.

It was a sunny day but there was a cold wind blowing into the faces if the Cowden team as the game kicked off.

The Blue Brazil had Ross Sinclair, signed from St Johnstone on Friday in goal and the team lined up in a 3-5-2 formation as follows – Sinclair; Pollock, Barr, Glass; Sneddon, Hamilton, Herd, Miller, Clarke; Renton, Kavanagh. Subs. Whyte, Mullen, Buchanan, Taylor, Swann, Owens, Trialist.

Cowden took an early lead when Ross Clarke motored up the left wing and flashed the ball across the goal from just inside the touchline. From an acute angle the ball ended up hitting the net high up just inside the far post.

The Blues were in charge of the game and looked like adding to their score. A second goal then came in 23 minutes when Cian Kavanagh fired over a cross from the left hand side and Jacob Glass rose to power home a header – thus Jacob joined Ross Clarke in registering his first ever goal for Cowden.

Sinclair was called into action when he smartly blocked a shot at the post. Ex-Cowden man Brad Smith though was becoming increasingly involved in the action and impressed in midfield along with Ross McCord for the homesters. It was danger-man Smith that got Broughty back in the game with a trademark left foot finish from inside the box – that same left foot that saw off Cove Rangers. Kavanagh and Hamilton both had chances but were crowded out before they could add to the scoring.

The teams changed round with Cowden 2-1 ahead and we made two substitutions at the start of the second 45 – Sneddon and Clarke being replaced by Mullen and Buchanan respectively. The second half though was rather less entertaining than the opening 45 minutes. Chances were few and far between and of course there was the usual raft of friendly substitutions.

Cowden made wholesale changes in the 62nd minute with Barr, Renton, Miller and Hamilton all leaving the field to be replaced by Swann, Trialist, Owens and Taylor.

The game ended with no further scoring and thus Cowden ran out 2-1 winners. Special mention goes to the two 17-year olds at centre back, Ross Pollock and Jacob Glass, who excelled over the 90 minutes. Brad Smith was a stand out for ‘the Fed’.