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2010/11 Season News

Match Preview: Falkirk v Cowdenbeath


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Match Preview: Falkirk v Cowdenbeath

Posted February 24, 2011

Cowden make the short trip out of Fife this weekend to take on promotion hopefuls Falkirk in another important league match for The Blue Brazil, with John Dempster and Jon Robertson (pictured) back in contention after injury.

With sides around us starting to pick up points (both Ross County and Stirling Albion getting important draws in midweek), Jimmy Nicholl will be looking for his team to snatch something against the Bairns. Last weeks demoralising loss to Raith Rovers will need to be forgotten about and it'll be hoped the team can bounce back like they did after the Dunfermline match to record at least a point.

"We were poor last Saturday and the players are very disappointed in themselves", commented Nicholl.

"The first half was disappointing to say the least with three soft goals making it easy for Rovers. The players redeemed themselves in the 2nd half to a certain extent by showing some character and pride. But it was too little too late and we never really come close to troubling their keeper except for a late effort from Mickey Cameron.

"We have let the fans down with the performances against Dunfermline and Rovers. It was always going to be difficult against the top two teams in the league but we ran them both closer earlier in the season and need to get that level of consistency back into our performances.

"It's another challenging game this weekend against another team with SPL aspirations. Falkirk are a dangerous team and beat us 5-1 last time around. It was a particularly young team that day but I'm not interested in excuses and we need to improve our work rate and defending. We will need to be disciplined, orgainsed with everyone doing their job and become harder to beat than recent losses would suggest."

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

Archie Campbell will be available after both parties agreed to extend the initial one month loan deal unti the end of the season. The 20-year old Rangers striker has scored once from his four appearances to date.

This will be only the 2nd meeting between the 2 sides this season (Falkirk are the only team to have yet to visit Central Park on league duty) and Falkirk won the opening match comfortably by 5 goals to 1 with a late Mark Ramsay penalty grabbing our consolation strike. Since then Falkirk have continued to get points and sit in 3rd place with games in hand over our Fife rivals above them - Cowden on the other hand now sit second bottom and are bottom of the form table with only 2 points out of the past 24 available while our opponents have gathered 14. Clearly going to be a tough game especially when you consider we've conceded 23 goals in those 8 games - 2.87 per game!
 


Despite our poor recent form we have hope for optimism with an impressive record on this date in the 21st century. In 2000 we recorded a 4-1 victory at home against Forfar Athletic - current player Craig Winter opened the scoring before Steven Milne equalised.  This spurred Cowden into action with 2 goals in 3 minutes from Dale Gray and Graeme Brown before Murray McDowell sealed the 3 points with 15 minutes to go. 2 years later we defeated Hamilton in a midweek game 2-1. Keith Wilson opened the scoring in the first half before Keith Wright doubled the scoreline. Late on MacFarlane scored to make the ending nervous for the Cowden fans but we hung on to get the points.  
 


Then again we did also lose to Falkirk on cup duty during the Noughties. However in August 2000 we won by 2 goals to 1 in the Challenge Cup. Gareth Hutchinson had opened the scoring to put the 1st division side ahead before Graeme Brown forced the game into extra time - Reon Juskowiak scoring in the 112th minute to seal a famous win.  Sadly they got revenge for that score in 2006 with a 5-0 victory at Central Park - goals from Liam Craig, Mark Twaddle, Mark Stewart and a double from Pedro Moutinho so Falirk cruise through.
 


Match of the day fact of the week:- both Falkirk and Cowden have drawn 3 league matches this season which is the lowest in the league. Only Dumbarton, East Stirlingshire, Rangers and Aberdeen have drawn less games on league duty this season 2 draws each).  Odds on Saturday's match at the Falkirk Stadium being a draw? 

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