Football Season Guide

Cowdenbeath will be hoping to enjoy a season of consolidation following back-to-back relegations. The Blue Brazil were promoted to the second tier of Scottish football as second division Champions in 2012 and spent the next three years battling against the drop from the re-named Championship. They finished bottom of 2015 and were relegated to League One with ambitions of challenging for a play-off place under player-manager Colin Nish, who had been chosen to succeed experienced boss Jimmy Nicholl. He made wholesale changes to the squad but was unable to find the right balance between attack and defence with goals flying in at both ends of the pitch. The loss of loan midfielder Andy Murdoch to parent club Rangers and striker Gordon Smith’s decision to emigrate to Australia in January were significant blows and they eventually finished second bottom of the League One table and faced Queen’s Park in a two-legged play-off semi-final. A 1-0 win in the second leg at Central Park wasn’t enough to overturn a 2-0 defeat in the first leg at Hampden Park and were condemned to a second successive relegation. The club opted not to renew Nish’s contract and he was quickly replaced by Liam Fox as head coach. A huge number of players have left again this summer, including goalkeeper Grant Adam and midfielder Lewis Milne to Forfar Athletic and strikers Greig Spence and Ross Caldwell to Alloa Athletic and Brechin City respectively. Fox has re-signed midfielder and player of the season Dean Brett whilst centre-back Craig Sives loan move from Livingston has been made permanent. Goalkeeper David McGurn has signed from Raith Rovers, defender Gerry McLaughlan has arrived from Ayr United whilst striker Gary Glen has joined from Livingston. The Blue Brazil will be hoping to live up to their nickname this season and if Fox can halt their downward spiral they should be challenging for the play-offs.