COWDENBEATH 0 EDINBURGH CITY 2

The Ladbrokes League Leaders maintained their five point advantage with this win but both the Cowdenbeath manager and captain felt it was self inflicted.

Gary Bollan and David Marsh are looking to 2019 to see the improvement in the Blue Brazil continue to develop and cement themselves as a top half of the table side.

But they were very unhappy at how this game was lost. Cowden had opened the game positively and had a strong penalty claim turned down in the first minute when Jordan Allan went down in a challenge from City skipper Conrad Balatoni. Then the Fifers were denied by some good goalkeeping from Calum Antell, but in City’s first raid on 20 minutes some slack marking saw a Graham Taylor cross bundled into his own net by Jason Talbot with Scott Shepherd waiting to tap in.

Then in the second period Allan and Kris Renton had chances to put Cowdenbeath back in the game but in City’s first raid their top scorer, Blair Henderson, was left unmarked at a long throw and his header made it 2-0.

Talbot’s red card for a challenge on Robbie McIntyre on 67 minutes ended the home hopes.

Said manager Gary Bollan: “We made a great start to the game and had a good penalty shout turned down in the first minute and then had another couple of good chances. But a bit of slackness cost us a key goal in City’s first serious attack. It was the same at the start of the second period.

“We undid a lot of our good work by needlessly losing goals and yet we always threatened.”

Skipper Marsh echoed these sentiments, saying: “We started the season with a totally new squad and after an indifferent start we have being playing well and have got a lot of points on the board.

“Today we really shot ourselves in the foot as twice we conceded at completely the worst moments in the game.

“We have the players to look at making a real challenge for a top four slot but we have to tighten up at the back.”

City manager James McDonough was pleased with his team. “We really defended well for Cowdenbeath posed us a lot of problems,” he said.

“To go into the last week of the year five points clear at the top of the table is really quite something for us and is a credit to the team’s commitment and skill.”