Cowdenbeath 2
Dundee 0
League (Championship)

Match Report

Dundee tasted defeat for the first time under Paul Hartley, losing 2-0 to Cowdenbeath at Central Park today. The Dark Blues were caught out by goals on the break in each half by Rory McKeown and Greg Stewart. The well organised home side dealt much better with a poor pitch and Dundee lacked the imagination and composure to break down a deep lying defence.

Paul Hartley made only one change to last week's line up. Carlo Monti was a straight replacement for the injured Ryan Conroy on the left flank.

The home side fielded a cautious five man defence and were happy to sit deep and try to hit the Dee on the break. Martin Boyle's pace was the main early threat to the home defence. He was unlucky not to win a penalty when he got on the wrong side of centre back Armstrong and seemed to be pushed over.

The home defence needed all their wits about them to cope with the Dark Blues fierce pressing game in the final third, but Dundee were struggling to turn pressure into chances.

Cowdenbeath had suffered an early blow when a bad foul by McBride put Hemmings out of the game. However, his replacement, Jamie Stevenson, set up the opening goal just after the half hour, Cowdenbeath broke from defence and Stevenson's cross-field pass found Rory MCKEOWN racing in from the left. The full back took a touch and scored with a low 20 yard shot across Letheren.

The bumpy pitch made passing difficult and Dundee resorted to high balls into the penalty area that were dealt with well by the three man central defence.

Early in the second half the home defence slipped up at last, allowing Declan Gallagher a free header only six yards out from McAlister's free kick. Sadly he headed weakly wide with the goal gaping.

Paul Hartley threw on Nicky Riley and Christian Nadé to replace Monti and MacDonald, but for all their possession in the Cowdenbeath half Dundee could neither play their way through nor round the defence. High balls were easy meat for the defenders and things were looking bleak for the Dee.

Cowdenbeath were fortunate to survive a spell of frantic pressure 20 minutes from the end. First they got the benefit of the doubt in another penalty shout when Brownlie knocked Riley up in the air. Gallagher's header from a corner was then scrambled off the line. From the following corner the ball pinged around the goalmouth till it was again hacked off the line.

Dundee's last ploy was to send on Craig Wighton to replace Kevin McBride. However, for all the desperate energy there was little real threat to Cowdenbeath, who successfully soaked up all the pressure.

As the minutes ticked by the home side were looking more comfortable than an increasingly ragged Dee. It was no great surprise when Cowdenbeath killed the game with a sucker punch of a goal nine minutes from time.

Stevenson timed his pass perfectly to send Greg STEWART clear. It was a close call, but he looked definitely onside. He ran on to clip the goal past Letheren, and that was the end of the contest.

Dundee puffed and panted but didn't look like pulling a goal back. Indeed, it was Stewart who came closest to another goal, forcing a good save from Letheren with a curling shot from the right.

If that shot had gone in it would have been a ridiculously flattering scoreline for the Blue Brazil. However, there can be no grudging them their win because they executed their game plan perfectly. Dundee, on the other hand couldn't exploit the extra space in the middle of the park that they were given by Cowdenbeath's deep defending. The midfield and wide players were never allowed an inch of space once they got within 40 yards of goal and Dundee simply didn't have the game or the players on form to deal with Cowdenbeath's hard working and well disciplined defence.

Dundee are still top of the Championship, but they will have to do much better than this in the 11 remaining games. The Dark Blues might have had the better individual players, but Cowdenbeath knew how to make the best of their resources on a difficult pitch. If Dundee had been able to take the lead it would have been hard for Cowdenbeath to get back into the game with their defensive approach. However, once the Blue Brazil were in the lead they ensured they did what was required to take all the points and deserved the win in the end.

Match report written by James Christie - Official Dundee website