Spartans 0 Cowdenbeath 9 (Read as nine)

Went along to Ainslie Park, home of Spartans FC in Edinburgh yesterday to see Cowden in action for the first time since our relegation was confirmed a few weeks ago. A decent away support experienced a great wee place, with excellent facilities and friendly staff. Where else would you get a lager and a pie at half-time? It would be great if Cowden could get the same sort of set up once upping sticks and moving away from Central Park. Saw a couple of familiar faces mingling in the crowd, Chris Townsley (ex Alloa), Dave McPherson (Hearts and Rangers star).

On to the match, it was an excellent performance from a strong Cowden side, but couldn’t really gauge players defensively, as Spartans never really looked likely giving us any problems, to be fair, it was not the full first team for Spartans, it was a mix of mostly under 19’s and first team. It was refreshing to see a complete passing game from Cowden, no long balls.

Cowdenbeath Starting line up:

4-4-1-1 (Ramsay just behind Stewart) 

Flynn, Brett, Adamson, Mbu, Winter, Cameron, Robertson, Trialist, Linton, Ramsay, Stewart

Subs;  

Trialist keeper, Trialist, McKenzie, Mackay, Miller, Bennett, Byrne, Milne, Callaghan, Milne, Coult, Finnie, Ferguson.

The goals were scored by Ramsay, Stewart (2), Robertson, Trialist (2), Coult, and McKenzie (2).

The Trialist who started the game on the right wing, is on trial from an SPL side, who may join on loan, he looked very decent, had the ability to take on the Spartans defence and put in a few great crosses. He had quite a good touch and strength to hold off defenders and his 2 goals were decent finishes. Was great to see big Joe back, Along with Dene Droudge (did not play) and Danny McKay, it will feel like we have signed three new players. Greg Stewart was fantastic, great little touches, taking on defenders and his movement was sublime. Toorie played in defence (John Armstrong on holiday alongside Joe in the first half, and linked up well with the midfield. Steven Bennett from the youth set up started the second half, a very big lad and looked promising, can just imagine him paired with Joe in the middle of defence, scaring off division two’s strike force. I can’t comment on the two keepers, as they were never really called into action. Although the trialist keeper in the second half commanded his defence well, did plenty of shouts of encouragement.  I Think only a handful of us heard him shout to Lewis Coult, hey, Crouchy (as in Peter Crouch) get up for the ball. Great stuff. Colin Cameron almost pulled off replicating Gazza's goal against Scotland at Euro 96, but miss kicked in front of goal.

Although we wont be getting carried away with such results, i feel we have a decent enough squad to compete at the top end of the league this season, but all in all, a tremendous start to pre-season – well done lads.