Match Preview: Falkirk v Cowdenbeath

The Blue Brazil make their first ever trip to the Falkirk Stadium on Saturday to face Steven Pressely's 3rd placed team with both sides level on 12 points in the Irn-Bru First Division table.

Goals from Mark Ramsay, who will come up against his former side this weekend, and Brian Fairbairn ensured a memorable win over Dundee last weekend and continued the excellent start to the first quarter of the season. Jimmy Nicholl's side will have no fears about facing another full-time team with promotion aspirations but will have to contend with a lengthy injury list.

Falkirk were playing SPL football last season and will be looking to make a quick return to the top flight. The Bairns have had to cut their cloth accordingly following relegation but have been able to retain a host of SPL quality players including Robert Olejnik, Brian McLean, Burton O'Brien, Ryan Flynn and Carl Finnigan.

"We are up against it again this weekend", commented Nicholl.

"Falkirk will be disappointed that they did not get a result last Saturday. They are a good team who play good football and I watched them recently against Hearts and they played really well. We know that we will need to hold out at the back and do something at the other end.

"We will go into the game with no fears though with the confidence growing every week. The players work extremely hard and look forward to their football every weekend. The performance levels and league position is evidence of that.

"I was delighted with the three points last week which kept us up the table. We started the game well which was important and scored two good goals. We defended comfortably in the 1st half but knew that Dundee would come at us after the break and it was all hands to the pumps at 2-1. However, the player stuck to their task and David Hay was outstanding in goals."

Midfielder Jon Robertson makes a welcome return to the Nicholl's squad after coming through 90 minutes for the reserves against Livingston on Tuesday night. However, Marc McKenzie is out after damaging ankle ligaments against Dundee while John Armstong is also likely to sit this one out after picking up an injury in the same game. Thankfully the injury sustained by McKenzie is not as serious as first thought and Nicholl is hopefull that both players will be available for the Fife derby against Raith Rovers in a fortnights time. Joe Mbu, Dene Droudge, Richard Vauls and Danny Mackay remain on the sidelines.

 With McKenzie injured, young forwards John Ferguson and Greg Stewart will be pushing for a starting place.

 Listen to the pre-match chat at Kick Talk radio.