Man of the match Ryan Wallace felt the rollicking he and his team-mates got at half-time inspired them to grab a place in round two of the Ramsdens Cup.
A goal down to a Nat Wedderburn strike from eight yards in 14 minutes, Dunfermline equalised in 35 minutes after Ross Millen’s penalty had been deflected for a corner by Cowden keeper Thomas Flynn and Calum Morris headed in the leveller.
Dunfermline stepped up a gear in the second half and strikes from Ryan Ferguson in 63 minutes and Ryan Thomson 14 minutes later sealed a morale boosting win for the club, which faces a crucial CVA meeting on Tuesday.
Cowden were also reduced to nine men for the closing five minutes when midfielder Nat Wedderburn suffered a dislocated shoulder then Lewis Milne was red carded for aiming a kick at Pars sub Craig Dargo.
Wallace was chosen as the Ramsdens man of the match, which he modestly said could have gone to one of several members of the side, but he was sure that manager Jim Jefferies’ half-time chat made a big difference.
He said, “We started the game very badly and Ryan Scully had to make a couple of great saves to keep us in the tie. We managed to get the equaliser before the break but the boss was most unhappy at half-time.
“He pointed out how we were not concentrating enough on the jobs we had talked about before the game and he made it plain that if we did not improve we would be out of the cup.
“The second half was much better and we took our two goals well to get into the hat for the next round. This is a competition we want to do well in so it was important we got ourselves sorted out.”
The front man, who earned his man of the match award for excellent link-up play, said the CVA meeting was not a factor in the poor first-half showing.
“Our job is to get results on the park, there is nothing we can do about what will be decided at the meeting,” he said.
Jefferies agreed his team had not been good enough in the opening 45 minutes.
He said: “Our basics were poor and we fell down in putting into practice all the things we had talked about before the game. The goal we conceded came from us not picking players up and there were other incidences of people switching off.
“We had a good talk about where we were going in the tie and I pointed out that unless we improved we would be out of the Ramsdens Cup.
“Our midfield really started to take control of the game after the break and we created some excellent chances, and over the 90 minutes we deserved to go through.”
Cowden boss Colin Cameron felt his team had a good first half hour before losing their way.
He said: “While we opened the game well I felt the quality of our passing over the 90 minutes was below what is needed.
“Also our marking at the equaliser was non-existent and the longer the game went the worse our passing got and we really never threatened in the second period.
“With big Nat Wedderburn likely to be out for a couple of weeks with his shoulder injury and Lewis Milne joining Jamie Stevenson on the suspended list, our resources will be stretched for this weekend’s League Cup tie at Berwick.”