If there's a better way to celebrate your birthday than with a trip to Cowdenbeath's Central Park
then I'm not sure what it is.
Obviously seeing your team winning on said trip would be something of a bonus but that's in the
hands of Pat Fenlon and his less than merry band. Drink shall either dull the pain or intensify the
joy.
Fuck it all, doom merchants! (that's you by the way) Right. So that's me back from international
duty time to catch up on all that's been happening while I've been away not paying too much
attention to events concerning our beautiful game. Let's see. Our clubs are out of Europe (well,
not quite. Ah [.
We were here a year ago for the same fixture and for the same reason the first division
play-offs. Last year they met in the final rather than the semi, and both sides were going for
promotion. Cowden won it then, achieveing their second successive promotion despite a backdrop of
off-field problems which resulted in further budget cuts this year.
Frontman of Glasvegas, James Allan once played as a winger for Cowdenbeath, East Fife, Queen's
Park, Gretna, Stirling Albion and Dumbarton, making 105 appearances in the Scottish Football
League. He was part of the Cowdenbeath squad that won promotion as runners up in the 2000–01
Scottish Third Division.
A difficult Saturday afternoon for Cowdenbeath, shipping three goals and losing their derby with
Raith inside the first half hour.
There have been better times though.
As Daniel Gray writes in Stramash:
"Central Park is a relic that binds. If its pensionable walls could speak, they would
talk of 1920s glory days and mention the first team of miners that won promotion in 1924 and the
following season finished fifth in Division One.
Bizarrely enough Kenny Milne, once of Hearts, Cowdenbeath, Partick Thistle and Falkirk, is given
the full Wikipedia treatment.
The entry begins:
Milne endured a difficult upbringing in life and was raised and looked after by a pack of wolves in
the Scottish Highlands. The wolves are meant to be the only remaining one who still remain in
Scotland and the bond created between the wolves and Milne was said to have stunned the experts who
continued to watch this amazing real life Jungle Book story until they felt it was safe to remove
Milne from his adopted parents and move him onto human parents.
Thai Port have signed a Scottish player for the 2011 season. His name is Steven Robb and he used to
play for Dundee, Dundee United, Raith Rovers and St Mirren.
For those people who don't know Scottish football was first invented by English pools companies to
fill out the coupons. The one proviso they insisted on was that the team names must be as daft as
possible.
I can imagine this is going to go down like a lead balloon in certain quarters of Scottish
football: Donald Findlay, who was forced to resign as vice-chairman of Rangers in 1999 after he was
filmed singing sectarian songs at a supporters function, last night returned to football when he
was named the new chairman of Cowdenbeath.
BEING a Scottish blog, I don't have much time for anything to do with football outside of
Scotland's fair shores, but it didn't completely escape my notice that last Saturdays rip-roaring
Championship play-off final between Cardiff City and Blackpool included a fairly healthy Scottish
contingent... Over the past few months on these pages I've bemoaned the [.
We said the other week that the Scottish football season is over, but that would be doing a
disservice to four teams for whom there is still everything to play for. In the first of two games,
Brechin and Cowdenbeath will do battle for the right to join Stirling Albion in next years First
Division, while [.
Central Park, Cowdenbeath, is one of those old grounds with a bit of what they like to call
"character". Terracing surrounds the ground on three sides, set well back and a little above the
pitch, while the fourth side houses the two-part main stand, half of it the old shed and half a
newer stand where the older one was fire-damaged sometime in the 90s.
This is getting beyond a joke.Another month, another club looking like it's about to disappear.
This time Cowdenbeath.A historic name in Scottish football about to become a historic relic. A club
that has never achieved much but seems to make Scottish football just that bit more reassuring
simply by being.
Inside Left highlights the four games in this weekends Scottish fixture card that you need to keep
your eye on. This week we feature a tough fixture for both teams at Pittodrie, a
bottom-of-the-table clash in Granton, a mid-table affair in the First division and lastly, the pick
of the Scottish Cup games taking place [.
As Livingston take their case against demotion to the SFA against a backdrop of skulduggery and
alleged bribes. Scottish football once again hangs its dirty laundry out to dry.
It seems we overuse the word "crisis" here at Pitch Invasion in these daily Sweeper roundups,
but it is appropriate in this case as a terrible summer for Scottish football got worse with
Livingston's demotion from the first to the third division "for breaching
insolvency rules.
Boxing Day football is a British tradition. Whereas most of the big European leagues let their
players have the entire Christmas weekend off, the English, Scottish and Welsh leagues go right
back to work. But this year, the holidays have come along with quite a bit of snow, and much of the
schedule in England and Scotland will be called off.
It's back to earth with a bump this week for the Old Firm as League action resumes. The Second
round of the Scottish Cup also takes place this weekend, so there's plenty to get our teeth into as
we pick the four games you should follow.
Finally an SPL club get their Lennon. My first reaction to Danny Lennon's appointment at St Mirren
was positive. Obviously it's not a bank busting move but these are straitened times. Just reward
for Lennon's excellent season at Cowdenbeath and the Buddies' board to be applauded for a brave
move. No doubt they looked to Craig Levein's run at Hearts after stepping up from Cowden.
SOME fans of the so-called established first division clubs will be looking back at the SPL season
just past as one of missed opportunity. Had wee Jimmy not managed to pull off that inspired last
match 0-0 draw, we could have been looking forward to the opportunity to sample one of the famous
Killie pies [.
Those of us who want our football measured against fairytales and romantic epics were left
disappointed yesterday at Hampden. Our fault, we were looking in the wrong place. Cowdenbeath today
sealed promotion to the First Division with a 3-0 win at Brechin. It's the first time they've
reached the second tier in 20 years.
Right, that's your season well and truly over thenoo! First off, congratulations go out to Forfar
and Cowdenbeath, both of whom won their play-off games on Sunday. Forfar edged out local rivals
Arbroath 2-0 with goals from Martyn Fotheringham and Bryan Deasley and thus return to the Second
Division for the first time since 2007.
Thank goodness all that Cup nonsense is out of the way. It's Saturday, meaning there's nae work,
only good 'ole Leage Football. This weekend sees a full fixture list across all four divisions,
which given recent meteorological events is a rare occurance indeed. Is this perhaps the first
signs of the Second Coming?
About a week or so ago, I wrote two articles on this site about the perilous state the Scottish
game finds itself in. Back then, I bemoaned the fact that the game north of the border was being
haunted by events on and off the field, from financial troubles to crowd troubles, from declining
standards [.
Inside Left plumbs new depths of football prediction incorrectness, failing to pick so much as one
winner in its Four To Follow. Is it time to get the ouija board out?
A January weekend to cast off the shackles of league pressure and revel in the romance of what is,
at this stage, the most egalitarian of our competitions.
A Scottish Cup weekend. Breathe in the fresh air of potential shocks and brace yourself butchers,
bakers and candlestick makers making SPL defences look like part-time amateurs.
