A goal with only seconds to go from a young player making his first appearance for Stenhousemuir cost Cowdenbeath a much needed Ladbrokes League One win.
Lewis Small, 21, turned what four minutes earlier had seemed like certain defeat into a very valuable point for the Warriors at Central Park.
After their five straight defeats on the road, Cowdenbeath desperately needed to beat Stenny and they went about things positively from the kick-off, which was delayed by 15 minutes due to the visitors being held up in traffic on the Forth Road Bridge.
They took the lead in 24 minutes through a Brad Donaldson header from an Andy Murdoch corner and doubled the advantage with 21 minutes left from another excellent finish from leading scorer Greig Spence.
There were chances to really put the game to bed but as the match went into the last five minutes Cowden still looked comfortable then everything changed.
Firstly, Ross Meechan powered in a header from a Mark Gilhaney corner on 86 minutes and, with a minute left to play, no home defender picked up Small, who showed good composure to fire a low shot past home keeper Jamie Sneddon to square the game.
Small had only joined Stenny earlier in the week after being at Stirling Albion where he had suffered a serious shoulder injury that had kept him out for months”
Cowden boss Colin Nish was totally shattered by the collapse which saw his team remain in the bottom two.
“That really felt like a defeat”, he said,
“Throughout the game we looked in charge and scored two cracking goals to go into the last five minutes looking comfortable.
“Losing the first goal was the real killer.
“There was only four minutes left and it suddenly brought them back into the game and in the closing seconds, as a defensive unit, we lost the place and it was really not good enough.
“It was a game we so dearly needed to win and for the most part we had done the job well but then threw things away”.