Fresh from taking maximum points at Dumbarton, Cowdenbeath manager Jimmy Nicholl has challenged his players to do likewise against another one of their fellow strugglers this afternoon.
Moving out of the Championship drop zone was the Blue Brazil’s first aim heading into an important fortnight and they did just that thanks to a 2-1 win over the Sons seven days ago.
And now that Nicholl’s side have opened up a three point gap over today’s visitors Alloa, the focus for the Fife club is to put some further breathing space between themselves and Barry Smith’s men in the table.
“It was obviously a very important win for us and we’ve got to try and do it all again against Alloa,” Nicholl stressed.
“Alloa will be fully aware of how important this game is and we will have to be careful to ensure that we defend with the same discipline as we showed at Dumbarton.
“If we can do that then we can definitely get the result we so desperately want.”
A home win this afternoon would increase the cushion over ninth-placed Alloa to six points with a game in hand, and Cowden will be keen to build on their impressive victory last week.
Keeper Robbie Thomson’s penalty save when Cowden were 1-0 down proved to be the turning point and goals from Darren Brownlie and Kudus Oyenuga earned them a victory.
“We had given away cheap goals in the last few games so we needed to tighten up at Dumbarton,” he commented.
“I think we did that as a team, and the whole side worked really hard defensively.
“It was important to keep our concentration in the closing stages and although Dumbarton had a couple of set pieces we defended well and managed to keep them out.”
It looks very much like it will be a largely unchanged team as Cowden go gunning for all three points.
Kenny Adamson came through his first 90 minutes since his return from injury unscathed last week and has had no reaction, while defender Dean Brett continued to build up his match fitness after being off on compassionate leave and could feature in Nicholl’s squad.