Match Preview: Cowdenbeath v Dunfermline

This Saturday sees derby fever sweep Cowdenbeath with the Blue Brazil set to host a home game for the first time since the 6th of November. It promises to be a day to remember with the first league derby against Dunfermline at Central Park for almost twenty years.

Please note that tickets will be available for sale for the normal outlets on Friday and for both home and away fans from Central Park (High Street turnstyles) between 1pm and 2.30pm.

With Central Park expected to welcome its largest crowd of the season, new groundsman Colin Haddow has been busy preparing the pitch this week for the big match. With a favourable weather forecast, there is no doubt over the match so it looks like it's game on for Jimmy Nicholl and his team.

"This is a special occasion for everyone connected with the club", said Nicholl.

"It is an important game for us and the derby element adds some extra spice for everyone. We did not do ourselves justice in our last meeting but the players know that they are capable of giving anyone in this division a game.

"The game will also be the first to be played under the new floodlights. This is a great achievement and is thanks to the fantastic efforts and financial support of a number of people, particularly Neil Fentie and the supporters action group.

"We have a busy schedule coming up which will be season defining. In March alone, weather permitting, we will play a quarter of the season in one month. We will need the full squad to step up during this period and I'm confident the players here are good enough to achieve our goal. We beat Fofar 4-1 in a bounce game on Tuesday and I was very encouraged by the performance of some players who have not featured regularly recently.

"I would like to thank the board for supporting me over the transfer window and I hope to bring in one further player. I lost out on a recent target to a second division club but have other irons in the fire and am currently talking to a number of SPL clubs about possible loan deals."

Visit Kick Talk radio to hear more pre-match chat with Jimmy Nicholl.

Nicholl will again have to do without defensive duo Mark Baxter and Joe Mbu. Baxter, the club skipper, suffered a foot injury in training last week and will see a specialist while Mbu is still troubled by the knee injury that has kept him out of action for the majority of the season. It's hoped that a recent injection will solve the problem, but if not keyhole surgery will be required which will see the influential centre half ruled out for 3-4 weeks.

This will be the 3rd meeting between the 2 sides this campaign - 2 wins out of 2 for the Pars.  A 2-1 victory at East End Park in September was followed up by a rather depressing 5-0 victory again at East End Park towards the end of 2010. 

It has of course been a long time since we defeated our rivals with our last win being in 1993 during our infamous first division campaign. With barely any points to our name and a run of 33 league games without a win we headed to Halbeath Road and secured an amazing 2-0 victory with former Pars player Willie Callaghan scoring twice. That result is still discussed and remembered clearly in Cowdenbeath today - is there a new hero waiting to be crowned forever a Cowdenbeath legend? Since that game its a 100% record for the Pars in all competitions - our closest to a victory being in 2002 where we lost in extra time in the CIS Cup after a stunning goal from John 'Chalky' Elliot.

Our record on this day has been a bit up and down - in 1994 we lost 3-4 to Queens Park in a classic at Central Park.  Goals coming from In 2000 we romped to a 4-0 win against East Stirlingshire with goals coming from Murray McDowell (2), Dale Gray and legend Graeme Brown while in 2005 we went down with 10 men against Albion Rovers. So not a successful day overall - this is backed up by our appalling record from years ago: 1927 we lost 1-0 to St Johnstone, 2 years later we lost by the same score to Celtic, 1949 Jackie Jones scored in a 2-1 loss against Dundee United who later drew
0-0 with us in 1955 and a 1-0 loss against Third Lanark (1966) summed up our pitiful performances on this date.

This match will be our first home game since November the 6th - this is one of the longest runs we've ever had without a home game during the football season. Other dreadful spells include 1946/47 where after a 4-3 New Years loss against Raith Rovers we didn't play a home match until the 29th of March where we drew with Dundee United. This was almost beaten in 1962/63 where after a 1-0 loss to Hamilton on the 29th of December we didn't play at home until March 16th in a 4-2 defeat against Berwick Rangers.  Towards the end of the 70's and start of the 80's having a prolonged spell with no home action seemed to be a common occurance: 78/79 saw us draw with Queens Park at the start of December and not play at home until a 3-1 win against Albion Rovers towards the end of February. 

The following year saw the 8th of December (a 2-1 win over Alloa) until February the 20th (a 0-1 loss to East Stirlingshire) where no balls were kicked at Central Park!  Incredibly there was a spell of no games at home the next year - admittedly a shorter time frame with only a month and a half between games at the end of the year.

Match of the Day fact of the week: Cowdenbeath are still the only side to have not kept a clean sheet on league duty this season, not just in Scotland but in England as well! Our one clean sheet came in the cup against Raith Rovers on the opening day of the season!

*Please note that segregation is in place for this game. Click here to read the segregation policy.