Morrison out for three weeks

On Monday Cowden confirmed some changes which impact on their Betfred Cup ties versus Hearts and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The Hearts game will now be at New Bayview.

Secretary David Allan said: "As many know, Central Park was badly hit by flooding in the storm on 11/12 August.

"The ground floor of the building was inundated with water which flowed in from outside from the car park area and this caused extensive and expensive damage.

"Work has been underway since then to remediate matters, not least to allow us to host our home fixtures under the Covid social distancing requirements, starting with our match v Hearts on Saturday. This was well in hand.

"However, this weekend a further storm created a new problem. On Saturday morning, when we entered the interior of the new stand, there was further significant flooding in the downstairs areas. Water was running down some walls and coming through ceilings. Upstairs in the boardroom water was pouring through the ceiling (see picture).

"This time the problem was a major roof leak. Eight rooms were scheduled to be used as dressing rooms for the Hearts game and many of these have been impacted to differing degrees. Some repair works already completed will need to be re-done with floors being taken up whilst some ceilings now need replaced. The current internal building works have been partly interrupted whilst roof repairs, weather permitting, will take a few days.

"It was thus evident that Central Park’s dressing room facilities would, because of this new damage, not all now be ready for the game on Saturday. We therefore can now confirm, following discussions with the SPFL and Hearts, and with the kind assistance of our friends at East Fife, that Saturday’s Betfred Cup tie v Hearts will now take place at the Locality Hub Bayview Stadium with a 3pm kick off.

"We have also been in discussions with Inverness Caledonian Thistle re the Betfred Cup tie at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium on Tuesday October 13 Our thanks go to Caledonian Thistle and the SPFL for their agreement to advance the kick off time to 6.30pm."

The Blue Brazil have wound up their pre-season friendlies programme with a record of three wins and one defeat and completed the games with a 1-0 home win over Lowland League side, CS Strollers, through an Olly Hamilton goal.

Manager Gary Bollan has used all his new signings in the matches, with goalkeeper Ross Sinclair, on loan from St Johnstone, looking solid in his two games, and strikers Hamilton and Cian Kavanagh looking sharp, while full-back Ross Clarke looks happy at either wing-back or orthodox full-back.

Mr Bollan is satisfied with what he has seen so far: “I am pleased we have been able to get the players we have had on our radar and we are looking forward to the Betfred ties.

“We have three league cup games before the first league game with Annan and we hopefully will be really sharp by the time we come to that match.

“Clearly as the only League 2 side in the group we will be seen as the outsiders in each tie but we are looking to make an impact on every game.”

Midfielder Gavin Morrison has had an operation on a groin problem and will be missing for three weeks, but everyone else is ready for action.

Cowdenbeath 1,

CS Strollers 0.

COWDEN concluded their build up with a narrow win over the Lowland League side at Central Park last Tuesday night, writes Andy Mullen.

The visitors had the best opportunities of the first 45 and on the half hour mark a header from a corner beat Sinclair but was cleared off the line despite appeals that it had crossed the goal line.

The first home effort on target didn't come until the 57th minute when Cian Kavanagh forced a save from Stuart Burnside.

The only goal of the game came when a through ball was controlled by loanee Olly Hamilton who calmly slotted past the Strollers' goalkeeper.

TEAM : Sinclair, Mullen, Clarke (Glass); Todd, Barr, Miller (Pollock); Taylor, Buchanan, Hamilton, Kavanagh (Swann) & Owens (Renton).