Locke upbeat as Cowden bid for great escape

ELGIN CITY v COWDENBEATH

Cowdenbeath head to Elgin this afternoon looking for the win that could secure their place in the SPFL.

Victory against promotion-chasing City will only be enough if Clyde or Berwick Rangers lose.

But, if the worst comes to the worst, the consolation for Gary Locke will be his players will go into the pyramid playoffs in good form.

Locke knows, however, that beating Jim Weir’s side will be far from easy.

He explained: “Elgin are one of the best footballing teams I have seen during my time at Cowdenbeath and they will be disappointed at slipping out of the top four.

“They will be going all out to win and get back into the play-offs.

“They will be hoping to win and that Clyde take care of Montrose, whereas we want to win and hope that Montrose take care of Clyde.”

With matters out of their hands even a Highland success may not be enough to avoid facing either East Kilbride

Since Gary Locke took over in March, Cowdenbeath have never gone three games without a win. If that sequence continues, they will get the three points needed to give themselves a chance of leap-frogging Berwick Rangers or Clyde. or Buckie Thistle, but Locke is upbeat.

He said: “If that happens then we need to deal with it and we will deal with it positively.

If we had been told when we came in back in March that we would still have had the chance on the final day of coming off bottom spot then we would have taken it.

“Results and performances have improved throughout my time here and if we are in the play-offs then at least we have some momentum.”

Locke added: “We played well against Forfar last weekend and we will take heart from that.

“They came to us as long term leaders and we would have beaten them if it had not been for a bad decision that went against us when Shaun Rutherford was dismissed.

“I am convinced that if he had stayed on then we would have won all the points and been even closer to Berwick and Clyde.

“We have appealed his red card and he will be involved up at Borough Briggs.”

The only absentee for the Blue Brazil is long-term injured defender Kenny Adamson.

Picture: SNS Group. Shaun Rutherford: appeal against red card allows him to play today.