Ruthless touch vital to end run of defeats

Cowdenbeath manager Gary Bollan hopes to see a reaction from his players as they prepare to head to Stenhousemuir tonight bidding to end a disappointing run of defeats.

Bollan’s side remain in ninth spot after they fell to their third consecutive defeat with a 3-0 loss away to Queen’s Park that saw the gap between them and bottom side Brechin City close to four points.

Cowden failed to find the target for the third time since League Two resumed last month and now take on a Stenny side also on a disappointing run.

Bollan said: “It was always going to be a difficult game against a strong Queen’s Park team who are top of the league for a reason.

“They are a full-time team and have a lot of good players at their disposal but it was still not a free hit for us.

“We asked the players to go back to basics and we looked a bit harder to beat but we will need to up our game against Stenhousemuir.

“We limited Queen’s to a few clear-cut chances but they took the opportunities they created and that is a sign of a good team.

“They are almost guaranteed to be champions and although they have beaten us 3-0 both home and away this season, I feel like we have at least competed well.”

Bollan added: “We had one or two half chances ourselves and as I have said recently, we need to start being much more ruthless in front of goal if we want to start moving up the table.

“Nicky Hogarth had a bit of criticism after the Edinburgh City game but we backed him to learn from that mistake and he pulled off a few really good saves to keep us in it so that was good to see.”