The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Blue Brazil face battle to survive after prickly contest with Rose
Cowdenbeath’s SPFL status hangs by a thread after they crashed 3-0 to Lowland League champions Bonnyrigg Rose at New Dundas Park.
The tale of woe for them in the first leg of the League 2 play-off final started with Harvey Swann getting his marching orders just after the half-hour mark, and was followed by Rose hitting three goals, including a penalty, to the delight of many of the 2,200 fans.
Blue Brazil manager Maurice Ross hit out at the referee’s decision to send Swann for an early bath and to award Rose a penalty soon after.
Ross said: “My overriding emotion is that I feel mugged. How can you get sent off when you win the ball? He made a real meal of it and I felt the referee was conned.
“As far as the penalty goes, I thought it was a free-kick for us.
“But you can’t fault Bonnyrigg, although I feel they got a massive helping hand from the referee.”
Rose manager Robbie Horn was delighted with his side’s display but warned that it was not over yet.
“We’ve got to go up there next week but I’m confident that we can go there and score. We got an early goal and then they had the sending off, which really was a red card for he’s lunged in three times and he’d been booked already. It was a bit crazy.
“We got a soft penalty and obviously we were two goals up and they had 10 men which put us in a great position and we controlled the game.”
He added: “If you’d given me 3-0 before the game I’d have bitten your hand off. They’ve got to come out to play next week.
“It was just a good solid professional performance from my lads and although it wasn’t brilliant football the most important thing was the result.”
Rose came out strongly in the opening spell and Sean Brown and Callum Connolly both had chances but the visitor’s defence managed to block shots.
Then in the 19th minute Harvey Swann got his name in the book for a late foul on Lee Currie and a minute later Brown saw his shot blocked again. In the 16th minute the Fifers had their first real chance but Sammy Ompreon’s shot from an acute angle went narrowly past and Andrew Barowman’s chance was blocked by the Rose defence.
Bonnyrigg got back on the attack and Callum Connolly shot past, twice in the space of two minutes, and at the other end in the 23rd minute Craig Barr tested the Rose keeper Mark Weir with a shot from the edge of the box.
Just on the half hour Andrew Barrowman had the visitors’ best chance but his shot from 20 yards went inches past the post.
Then in the 32nd minute disaster struck the Blue Brazil when Swann got a second yellow and went off for a tackle on Dean Brett.
It was all uphill for the visitors after this with Ross Gray and Bradley Barrett missing the target in the space of four minutes.
But minutes later with just five minutes to go until half-time, Sean Brown was set up by Barrett and he made no mistake with his shot from 12 yards to put Rose ahead.
Then in the 44th minute Rose were two up after Connolly was fouled in the penalty box by Kyle Miller and Neil Martyniuk stroked the ball home into the bottom corner of the net past Cammy Gill.
The second half saw the visitors defend desperately and in the 68th minute Lee Currie almost got a third but his shot went inches past.
Then four minutes later it was 3-0 when Brett rose for a Currie corner and he headed home from close in.
Barrowman almost pulled one back for the visitors in the 88th minute but his shot was brilliantly stopped by Weir.