Preview: Cowdenbeath v Albion Rovers

Cowden return to Central Park this weekend to face Albion Rovers in an Irn-Bru 2nd Division fixture.

After the 4-0 win last week away to Dumbarton we sit 2nd in the table behind Arbroath in the battle for top spot. Rovers on the other hand sit a point above bottom in 8th place after their point against Stenhousemuir last week.

Last Saturday's success was an impressive 4th win from the opening 6 league games and Colin Cameron was pleased with the performance, particularly delighted with the start to the game and that his side kept their first clean sheat of the season.

"A 4-0 win away from home is always pleasing and I was delighted with the manner the boys went about the game", commented Cameron.

"We started the game well, which we haven't done in previous games, and scored early and didn't give Dumbarton a chance to get themselves back into the match. It was also very pleasing to record our first clean sheet of the season.

"That is the standard of performance we have, generally, set this season and we will need to maintain that level of performance on Saturday. Albion Rovers are a good side and have quickly found their feet at this level after promotion last year.

"I have been stressing to the boys that we can't let our standards drop otherwise we will be punished. The disappointing display against Stenhousemuir on the back of the 5-1 win over Airdrie is evidence of that."

Visit Kick Talk radio to listen to more pre-match chat with Colin Cameron.

The 2 sides have met on many an occasion in the past decade or so facing each other in the 3rd Division on no fewer than 22 times since we entered the new millennium.  The record stands as 17 wins, 3 draws and just 2 defeats.  The last meeting between the 2 sides was on the 11th April 2009 where the 2 sides played out a 0-0 draw.  The previous encounter saw us scrape a 2-1 victory at Central Park thanks to a brace from John Gemmell (who has since returned to Cliftonhill and may feature on Saturday). The match before that was one of Albion's few wins over us thanks to goals from Barr, Benton and Harris. John Armstrong scored our only goal on the hour mark.

This date has seen us do well on league duty recently but not so well on cup duty!  Our last game was in 2005 away to Arbroath were goals from Liam Buchanan, Innes Ritchie and Ryan McCallum saw us cruise to a 3-0 win.  The 2 previous games on this date were the 2 cup matches we had in back to back years against Dunfermline.  Unfortunately of course we lost both games with only John Elliot scoring in the ties for us. Going back further in 1994 we beat Albion 4-2 at Central Park – a good omen.

Match of the day fact of the week – Rovers are one of a handful of teams to have not kept a clean sheet so far this season while Cowden are one of a handful of clubs to have scored in every league game this season.  That’s us jinxed and we won’t score now!