MATCH PREVIEW: Cowdenbeath v Forfar Athletic

The ‘Loons’ will pay their first visit to Central Park to face Cowdenbeath since April, 2012 this Saturday, although the sides did meet in the William Hill Scottish Cup last season, the Fifers coming out on top in that match at Station Park to the tune of 3-1.

The ‘Blue Brazil’ now under the stewardship of Colin Nish have to date won only one league fixture, a 1-0 success at home to Albion Rovers, having earlier in the campaign exited both the Petrofac and League Cups at the first hurdle to neighbours Raith Rovers and Dunfermline Athletic.

They do however look to have strong pool of players at their disposal and despite having Mo Yaqub sent off after 50 minutes against Peterhead last Saturday, goals from Gordon Smith and Greig Spence gave them a share of the points.

Certainly their most recent capture, highly rated Andy Murdoch on loan from Rangers would appear to be an astute piece of business.

Dick Campbell’s side go into the game on the back of their 2-0 victory up at Brechin last weekend, a match in which the manager freely admitted that they did not fire on all cylinders, especially in the first period.

The three points gained however saw the Station Park men restored to pole position in the Ladbrokes League 1 table.

A couple of the players notably Derek Young took knocks in that fixture but should have recovered in time, while skipper Gavin Swankie has had another full week’s training under his belt and could return to the starting line-up.

Scott Gallacher will continue in goal, but Omar Kader as was well documented when he signed a couple of weeks back will now be an absentee for some time, business commitments having seen him jet off to New Zealand this week.

Hopefully a reasonable number of Athies supporters will make the relatively short journey to West Fife by coach and car to back their team on Saturday afternoon.

Admission prices are £14 adults, £7 concessions, with a special price of £15 for and adult and an Under 12.

The match will be refereed by second season Grade One whistler Gavin Duncan.