Goals either side of half time saw our Scottish Cup campaign come to a premature end at Balmoor as we lost out to lower league opposition for the third time this season.

The trio of Mark Baxter, resembling a grid iron player with his shoulder protector, John Armstrong and Joe Mbu returned to the side with both Baxter and Mbu completing the 90 minutes but Armstrong had to leave the field after an hour after a recurrence of his ankle injury.

Openings were few and far between for either side in a dour opening period until a Strachan free kick set up Wyness but thankfully his header came off the Cowden bar.

Three minutes from the break however Ryan Strachan broke the deadlock when he beat two defenders to send a curing 25 yard shot high into the Cowden net.

The Blue Toon replaced the injured Wyness with Neil McVittie at the interval and it took the substitute only three minutes to seal the tie.

The ever dangerous Sharp sent over a low cross into the visiting box and McVittie slotted home from close range.

Our best chance of reducing the deficit came 11 minutes from time when Ramsay, who had replaced Armstrong, crossed to Dempster but the big striker headed wide of the target.

Despite a late flurry on the visitor’s goal we were unable to make any great impact as the Blue Toon recorded their first ever Scottish win over us.