Belowstrength Cowden go down to Annan

Cowdenbeath made a terrible start to their League 2 programme as being short of ke y p l ay e r s proved too much of a handicap to overcome in the match played at Bayview due to Central Park being hit by flood damage.

Having being five first picks shor t for the Annan game, it was always going to be difficult to get a result against a team who have being doing well in the Betfred Cup – but manager Gary Bollan reckoned the side he selected made problems for themselves.

Cowden went into the game without Fraser Mullen and Robbie Buchannan through Covid regulations, Mikey Herd was injured at Inverness last Tuesday, Jamie Todd was suspended and Kris Renton pulled up in the warm-up.

It mean that Broughty Athletic pair Brad Smith and Graham Hay, on temporary loan from the Fed, were in the starting line-up.

Bollan said: “We did not threaten them at all in the first 45 minutes. Our defending, which was so good against He a r t s and Caley Thistle, was terrible at the first two goals.”

Annan attacked strongly from the kickoff with frontmen Max Wright, Jack Purdie and Nathan F lanagan posing the Blue Brazil real problems.

In 14 m inu tes Flanagan curled home a lovely finish and it was 2-0 when Iain Anderson powered a 10-yard header wide of Cowden keeper Ross Sinclair.

The Blue Brazil started the second half in be tter form and Graham Taylor and Cian Kavanagh went close as they piled on the pressure.

Annan sealed the points, however, when Purdie found space for the third.