Match Preview: Cowdenbeath v Falkirk

The crazy March schedule is finally heading towards an end as Cowden take on Falkirk at Central Park on Tuesday evening in a big match in the promotion and relegation stakes.

After Saturday's vital point gained at Dens Park it will be no surprise to see a confident Cowden team taking to the pitch but  we will be up against a Falkirk side on a high after defeating league leader Raith iso it will not be an easy match for either side.

"The lads were excellent on Saturday and I was disappointed with only picking up a point as we deserved more", said JImmy Nicholl.

"It is another vital point though in our quest to remain in this division. Falkirk are the next challenge and we know from the two previous games how difficult opponents they will be. They have promotion aspirations but if we produce the form we have shown since the second half against Raith Rovers we will be in with a chance of causing another upset.

"Jon Robertson and Stevie Crawford had their best games for us this season on Saturday and I was impressed with young Thomas O'Brien who came on at half-time. There was not a failure throughout the team and I was delighted with the performance and application. We have players coming back from injury but they will have a fight on their hands to get back into the team if those currently with the jersey keep performing to that standard.

Lee Makel and Archie Campbell return to the squad after injury but the game will come to soon for Colin Cameron, John Armstrong and Bob Malcolm.

This will be the 3rd meeting between the 2 sides this season with Falkirk sitting with a 100% record over us at the 2 games at The Falkirk Stadium. Our opening match saw a young Cowden side slump to a 5-1 loss with a late Mark Ramsay penalty being our only consolation.  Late January saw an improved performance but still a 2 goal loss.

The league is tightening at both ends of the table with a possible win for Cowden being massive in the battle against relegation while the Bairns know if they win all their games in hand then they could be top of the table on goal difference.  It's all to play for! 

Cowden have however lost their last match being played on this date (a 2-0 defeat at home to Brechin City in 2008) and it's been a long time since we defeated Falkirk (August 2000 we battled to a 2-1 win in the Challenge Cup with Reon Juskowiak scoring the winner in extra time to secure a deserved win) but with a slight upturn in performance in recent weeks there is genuine optimism in the Cowden support that points can be attained here.

Falkirk have shown they are a competitive side away from home in recent outings with 8 points gathered out of the last 15 away points available. However they have only averaged a goal a game in these matches which underlines that with Cowden scoring goals just now that there is a great chance of some valuable points being added here. Unfortunately our home form has been poor lately with no home wins since the start of November so turning Central Park back into a fortress would be crucial in our battle against the drop.

Match of the day fact of the week:- with Stevie Crawford and Scott Linton scoring for us at Dens Park last Saturday it took our total number of different goal scorers this season up to 15. This is tied 2nd highest out of the 1st division teams tying with Falkirk, Ross County and Dunfermline.  At the top sit Partick with 17 while Morton sit bottom with only 10 different scorers.