| Topic: Fife Cup Semi Final |
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| 1. Author: McCaig`s Tower Date: Wed 25th Mar 2026. 15:33 I thought this deserved a thread of its own, rather than being hidden in the Raith Partick thread. I went along to Central Park last night with 332 others – a decent attendance, I thought. I didn’t recognise most of our team: 1. Farquharson (I think this is the correct spelling) 2. Quinn 3. Chuter 4. Gibb 5. Abdulai 6. Rowe 7. Bray (c) 8.Haughey 9. Fyfe 10. Shearer 11. Cameron Not sure who the young sub was with the Andy Tod glasses – Feeney perhaps? I’m not too familiar with Cowdenbeath’s team – it seemed like it was full of regular starters – Nat Wedderburn, looking a bit larger than when I saw him last, if that were possible, was on the bench. I think Adamson and McDowell used to be with the Pars as youths. It was an interesting match-up - a second team might be 3 divisions poorer than a first team? We had some first teamers, but also some (I guess) very young players. I’m never quite sure whether the aim is simply to win, or to give players some game time or to work on developing players, tactics and formations. A bit of all three, I guess. In the event it wasn’t a great game – we saw a lot of the ball, but couldn’t do much with it. Cowden hit the post in the first half, the bar in the second and in-between scored a scrappy goal. We had started brightly with Cameron on the left wing looking dangerous, but we barely had a shot on goal, let alone on target. As expected it was the players with first team experience who caught the eye – Abdulai looked class, Bray saw a lot of the ball in the middle of the park – his game is to get the ball, make a little turn and then try to use it, but overall our control and passing was poor – it seemed too often our second touch was a tackle, and we kept giving away possession. We looked like a team who had not played a lot together, which I think is the case. The young guys looked well drilled, but made the odd mistake. Freddie didn’t do a lot – he had one good run in the first half when he beat about 6 players but couldn’t get the shot away, then with 2 minutes he got the ball in left midfield, drove forward to the right then I’m not sure what happened – I thought he lost it, got it back, played it to the front post, the ball found its way to the back post and Fyfe side-footed home. FT 1-1 Straight to penalties and our five scored easily. They missed their first – their guy had perfected the stuttering run up, but not the aim away from the keeper bit and that was that. NL, IB and Geordie were in the stand. NL looked quite calm – he must have mellowed in his old age – I remember sitting along from him at a youth game at Livi when he was Celtic boss. Celtic had it all under control – they were one up, we were down to 10 (the first Chris Kane had been sent off) and Celtic botched a throw-in at the far side. I think John Kennedy and Chris McCart were taking the team but NL was still doing his nut. Post Edited (Wed 25 Mar 15:33) Reply |
| 2. Author: McCaig`s Tower Date: Wed 25th Mar 2026. 15:34 ...continued... I thought we might have had a couple more of our loanees playing, but perhaps they weren’t available (I see Jake was required by Forfar). I hadn’t been to Cowden for a few years – it’s sad how far they’ve fallen. That’s the pyramid for you – they, Albion, Berwick and East Stirling in particular are all struggling – Brechin are doing OK but can’t get out of the HFL. Bonnyrigg are doing well this season, but whether they will be able to sustain it in that difficult 2nd season out of the league is the question. Reply |
| 3. Author: neils Date: Wed 25th Mar 2026. 16:53 Cheers for this, was going to pop along, got a soft spot for Cowden, but a touch of the flu, and Central Park not the best for this! I wonder what our strategy is for our youth players now, there seems no competitive league for them now, and these guys need games. Glad Abdulai played, wonder what he thought of Cowdenbeath? Reply |
| 4. Author: Westies squint kicks Date: Wed 25th Mar 2026. 18:50 Thanks for the review MT. Reply |
| 5. Author: wee eck Date: Wed 25th Mar 2026. 18:59 There`s a link to John McLaughlan`s thoughts on the game on COWS but unfortunately it doesn`t work - `page not found`. Reply |
| 6. Author: Sacktheref69 Date: Thu 26th Mar 2026. 13:24 Lennon was quite vocal at the game against the Haws. Bene was basically coaching that night, did anyone notice if he was in the dugout again at Cowden? This is Andy Tod`s world and we are lucky to live in it. Reply |
| 7. Author: Parahandy Date: Thu 26th Mar 2026. 15:50 To be fair that wasn’t Cowden’s strongest team - they made 5 changes from their last league game and several of the players brought in hadn’t had much recent game time. They didn’t play well but should have won with two headers off the woodwork and a disallowed goal. They had an aerial advantage - note the two off the bar and the goal itself. They failed to close out the game and the Pars took advantage Reply |