50 Years Ago Today

50 years ago today, Cowden were in Scottish Cup action in unfamiliar territory. The draw for the third round of the 1970/71 Scottish Cup had been made on Monday 21 December 1970. This was when the big guns came into the competition and for once Cowdenbeath were part of this elite band given their top flight status. The first name out of the hat was Inverness Clachnacuddin – thankfully Rod Stewart wasn’t involved. Next club out in the draw would therefore travel to Inverness to Grant Street Park to face the Highland League side – who would it be? Cowdenbeath, of course.

Cowden then opened 1971 in fine style with their 3 new signings Davie Marshall, Davie Cairns and Frank Harper to the fore. They beat the Pars 2-1 at Central Park on New Year’s Day and then drew 2-2 with Hibs at Easter Road the following day. The much-anticipated game v Rangers at Central Park on 9 January though was cancelled due to the Ibrox disaster on 2nd January.

Cowden then lost 2-1 to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park in controversial fashion when the referee ruled out Davie Ross’s last minute equaliser for offside despite the linesman not raising his flag. The ref was not in Cowden boss Andy Matthew’s good books as in the first half he had allowed both sides to play in blue and white striped jerseys – this led to skipper Andy Kinnell leaving a ball at a Tommy McLean corner which was promptly headed home by Killie’s John Gilmour. Andy had thought Gilmour was a team-mate in his blue and white shirt.

Next was the match on 23 January 1971, and Cowdenbeath made the long journey to meet Clachnacuddin. Andy had had a run down on Clach from his brother-in-law, Bob Lowe. Bob (and Andy’s wife Ann’s) grandfather Bob Lowe was from Cowdenbeath and had owned the Woodside Hotel and Kirkford Tavern. Bob (jr) was a prominent Inverness accountant plus he had also been secretary of Inverness Thistle. Cowden travelled up on the Friday and stayed overnight in Inverness. Clach had spread tonnes of sand on their muddy pitch and then applied a heavy roller. It was a bit of a mess. A local ref though took a liberal view and declared the game on. Cowden were not in the mood for any Cup shocks and won 3-0 with goals from Davie Marshall and two from John Dickson.