Cowdenbeath 0 East Kilbride 6 

A DEPLETED Cowden squad was put to the sword by Lowland League leaders, East Kilbride, who marched into the quarter finals of the South Challenge Cup at Central Park on Saturday.

The Blues started the game well, and should have been ahead in the opening quarter, but EK took advantage of several home errors to take a full grip of the game by half-time.

Such were the home resources, they could only name three substitutes, but to be honest in the early stages Cowdenbeath were the better team.

But they paid heavily for basic errors and in the second-half East Kilbride took full charge, and the Blue Brazil ended up chasing shadows.

Cowden booked the strong wind in the first-half and in the first minute a cross from Zac Butterworth flew across the face of the visitors' goalmouth and Josh Jack was only inches away from connecting with the ball.

Then seven minutes later a Jack corner flew just over the bar as the Blues made a promising start.

In 12 minutes East Kilbride’s Tiwi Daramola, latterly of Kelty, came close with a low eight yarder that hit the home side net.

However, EK started to come into the game and took the lead in 26 minutes, when Daramola showed good composure to fire a low 10 yarder past Craig Hepburn after Cowden had carelessly given the ball away in midfield.

In 34 minutes Cowden’s Jamie Docherty tried his luck with fine 25 yarder which brought out a good save from EK ‘keeper, Matthew Connelly, then seven minutes from the break the visitors doubled their lead with a 12 yard shot from Nathan Flanagan, after the home defence had failed to pick the winger up.

Six minutes after the break the tie was over, when a slack midfield pass from Cowden let Robert Thomson have space to fire a 20 yarder low into the net, then within three minutes it was 4-0 when Daramola fired home from ten yards as the home challenge started to evaporate.

However, 16 minutes from time Docherty broke clear and his 16 yard drive produced a great save from Connelly, but two minutes later sub John Robertson was lying handy to blast in number five from only eight yards range, then he added a sixth with ten minutes left.

It completed a bleak afternoon for the home side, but there was some hope for them with a promising show from 16 year-old substitute, Brandyn Coventry, who came on in the last quarter and put together some nice passes and had a fine shot which worried the EK ‘keeper.

Brandyn joins Cowden from Blue Brazil Football Club where he was captain of the highly successful treble winning 07s last season.

The youngsters has been training with the Cowdenbeath first team for several months.

Following the game, manager Calum Elliot commented: "Brandyn has earned the opportunity to play yesterday.

"To his credit and as expected, it didn’t faze him.

"He’s been a breath of fresh air and he’s got a lot of ability.

"The plan is to expose him to men's football and get him ready for next season."