Match Report

The importance of the game wasn’t lost on the boys as they started off the better of the two sides. Their start very quickly went from good to excellent as they opened the scoring in the 6^th minute. O’Reilly surged into the hosts penalty area from the left hand side before playing the ball low and hard across goal only for it to be turned into his own net by Craig Thomson.

This spurred the Warriors on further as they continued to dominate and cause problems for the Cowdenbeath defence. Brown came close to doubling the lead after a quick Thomson freekick played him in, however his effort was dragged slightly wide of the bottom left hand corner.

It was 2-0 shortly afterwards on 28 minutes as Brown turned provider, playing Thomson in with a perfect ball over the top. Thomson was then able to control the ball and shrug off one defender before his shot was deflected into the top corner by the second.

The away support were now in full voice as Thomson nearly grabbed a third but his effort was turned behind by Gill at the front post leaving the Warriors two goals in front going into the break.

The second half almost started better than the first with the Warriors coming close after just one minute. Miller drove in a low cross which came off a defender and almost found its way into the net.

Despite this, our hosts then did begin to come into the game a bit more and started to create some half chances of their own. O’Connor came close before Barr smashed a long distance effort off of the Warriors crossbar.

In the 78^th minute O’Reilly could have grabbed the goal that his performance deserved. He was played through one on one with Gill through a long ball however his shot was straight at the Cowdenbeath keeper.

By this point the Warriors had regained their control of the game and were slowing it down at every opportunity. The later stages were managed well by the boys as they held out to secure a huge 3 points. The win sees us move 3 points clear of Cowdenbeath and also leapfrog Elgin in the table.

Cowdenbeath: Gill, O’Connor, Mullen, Thomson, C. Barr, R. Buchanan, Hutton, Miller, Renton, Swann, L. Buchanan

Substitutes: Collins, Morrison, Pollock, B. Barr, Watson, Coulson, Mahady, Todd, McGurn

Stenhousemuir: Wilson, Miller, R. Lyon, Jamieson, Crighton, Hughes, Wedderburn, Brown, O’Reilly, Forbes, Thomson

Substitutes: Orr, Christie, Anderson, Tierney, Corbett, Graham, J. Lyon, Coll, Marshall

Match Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjJNT-CsQjg

Stephen Swift interview:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGahIKoJVD8

Euan O’Reilly interview:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBMm8-nz4ns