IT MAY not have been a Champions League semi-final or a crunch SPL title match but the drama at Central Park was no less intense. Cowdenbeath scraped through to the Second Division play-off final against Stenhousemuir courtesy of a late strike which resembled Rangers' 'goal' at Easter Road last week while the East Stirling players and management team made Didier Drogba look like a saint with their subsequent reaction.
The visitors took an early lead when Darren McGregor's under-hit back pass was seized upon by Brian Graham and he kept his composure to round David Hay and slot home. Jim McInally was sent to the stands after venting his anger towards referee Mike Tu
milty midway through the half – a sign of things to come.
With the match seemingly destined for extra time, McGregor made amends for his earlier mistake when he seized on a loose ball to force it over the line with just five minutes to go. Assistant referee Richard Gough was confronted by Shire's Sean Anderson and Michael Bolochoweckyj who both saw red while McInally, who had returned to the pitch side, was again dismissed by referee Mike Tumilty.
When play resumed, the nine men of East Stirling were unable to force the match into extra time as Cowdenbeath celebrated reaching the final. McInally, who will surely be heavily reprimanded by the SFA, continued his protests which seemed to be aimed at Keith Harvey, the home side's sports scientist who had alerted Tumilty to McInally's reappearance on the touchline.
East Stirling's David Nicholls said: "We've looked at the video and it's inconclusive; how the linesman has seen it I don't know. The referee lost the plot with the decisions throughout the match. I've been in football for 20 years and I've never seen decisions like that."
Cowdenbeath, however, have a final to look forward to. Striker Paul McQuade said: "I was warming up at the time and the ball was definitely over the line; not by much but it was definitely over the line. Their players were obviously upset as we would have been but it was a definite goal. The players are delighted but we need to go on to the final and start afresh.
"We have a lot of good characters in the dressing room and hopefully we can go on and get promotion. We want to prove to people that we were good enough to go up in the first place."
The full article contains 423 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
