Match Preview: Cowdenbeath v Stirling Albion

Central Park hosts the match of the season on Saturday with the Blue Brazil facing a must win encounter against Stirling Albion.

Ross County's win on Tuesday night means that Cowden have to win their final two games and hope that the Dingwall side fail to pick up three points at the Falkirk Stadium this weekend in order to avoid the relegation play-off spot. A win for Jimmy Nicholl's side and anything less than all three points for County would set up a final day showdown at Victoria Park next weekend.

John Armstrong is expected to return to the squad for the match on Saturday but Mark Baxter and Richard Vauls are both doubtful. Jimmy Nicholl will be missing suspended trio Craig Winter, Kenny Adamson and Colin Cameron while Joe Mbu (knee) and Dene Droudge (knee) miss out again.

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

The final meeting between the 2 sides this season sees Cowden going for a 100% record over Stirling.  The first meeting saw us come from behind to snatch a 3-1 win.  Lee Sibanda, Dean Brett and John Dempster with second half goals saw us win against 10 men. The second match at the start of November saw us again come from behind to win - an own goal brought us level before Greg Stewart, Mark Ramsay, Brian Fairbairn and Kyle Miller scored as we won 5-1 against 9 men this time. 

The last meeting will live long in the memory of all Cowdenbeath fans. 3-0 down with 13 minutes to go and we came back to win 4-3 thanks to a double from Mark Ramsay and goals from Archie Campbell and Stewart again against 10 men!  After Stirling beat us to the title last season it will be a sweet feeling for all Cowden fans if we can make it 4 wins out of 4.

Oddly this date has saw us record three 1-1 draws in a row - in 1994 we drew against Queens Park, 2005 saw David Williams score our goal against Stenhousemuir and 3 years ago a Pat Scullion penalty saw us draw in the play-off semi-final away to Arbroath.  It'll take a mammoth effort with numerous injuries but the spirit shown by the squad this season should give us a great chance. Stirling's recent form has been poor though with only 1 point gained out of the last 24 available while we
have picked up 7 points (1 win and 4 draws). 

It's been a brilliant effort from Cowden in recent weeks to keep us in with a shout of staying up automatically but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Match of the day fact of the week:- Stirling have won the least number of league games this season in Scotland with only 3 wins (tied with Hamilton).  Peterhead are next in line with just 5 wins in the league this season - all at home!                     

The Blue Brazil will wear the new Umbro home kit for the big match and fans will be able to purchase the kit prior to kick off from the Club Shop.