Back the Blue Brazil - Part Three

No Cowden fan who attended Central Park on Saturday 29th April 2006 will ever forget the match day drama and emotion as a huge crowd crammed into Central Park to watch their team win 2-1 against Elgin City and pip Berwick Rangers for the Third Division Championship. Grown men and women wept as the helicopter dispatched the trophy for club legend Innes Ritchie to lift aloft and end a 67-year long wait for a title win! 

2,646 Blue Brasilians can say "I was there".

Colin Cameron's Cowdenbeath team of 2011/12 - one to match the swagger, talent and commitment of Mixu's side - stand on the edge of greatness with one win required from our remaining three fixtures to guarantee the Irn-Bru Second Divison trophy. This Club will never take anything for granted and the team is fully focussed on the three difficult games ahead.

However, on Saturday, Central Park COULD once again witness a title win if we defeat Forfar or at least match the result of title rivals Arbroath. If so, the history books will remember Saturday 21st April 2012 as another special day in the proud history of Cowdenbeath Football Club.

Will you be able to say "I was there"?

Tell everyone you know that Central Park is the only place to be this Saturday. Back the Blue Brazil - It's your club.

Whatever the outcome on the 5th of May, the team of 2011/12 has done the club and local community poud.

In part three we look back at that special day in 2006.

The Blue Brazil are the Champions!

Savour this short sentence - a combination of words that have not been uttered for 67 years.

On 29th April 2006, 2,646 Blue Brasilians witnessed a Cowden team lift the Championship trophy for the first time since 1939, as the Blue Brazil Maracana put on a carnival illuminated by the April sunshine and a sea of Cowden blue, Finnish and Brazilian flags.

As the referee blew his final whistle to bring the 2005/06 season to a close the Cowden faithful released all their pent up emotions which told the story of what supporting a lower league team is all about. Grown men and women cried, and strangers embraced as the reality that Cowden had pulled of a miraculous comeback to peg back Stenhousemuir and Berwick Rangers to clinch the Third Division Crown sunk in.

For all this to happen in the season Cowden celebrated their 125th anniversary and 5000th league goal is pure 'Roy of the Rovers' stuff.

Hundreds of fans, young and old, risked life and death to scale the perimeter fence to celebrate with the heroes of the day - Mixu, his backroom team, and the players.

After some calm was restored the players climbed the racewall, led by the groove of Armand One, and joined the fans on the terracing. Families (in some cases three generations), friends and strangers danced together to the tune of the Coo Shed. 3240 minutes of pulsating football over the course the season was now over, all that was left was the small matter of the Championship trophy.

In a day of high drama the Scottish Football League flew in the trophy just after 5pm. The helicopter landed in a field just on the edge of Cowdenbeath, after first doing a lap of honour around the ground much to the delight of the home support, and the trophy was escorted to Central Park for the presentation. Every player was cheered as they received their medals before Central Park erupted as the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown MP presented the trophy to Innes Ritchie.

Another pitch invasion followed as the players made their way to the dressing room to continue their celebrations as the fans on the terracing danced once more samba before moving onto Wee Jimmie's for the title party. There was just time left for Ritchie to lead a 'Rocky' style lap of honour chased by hundreds of fans before the entire team disappeared into a sea of blue and white.

What a season! What a team! Great to be Cowden! It was just like watching Brazil.