A GOAL early in the first half and two in the second took Rangers within striking range of Hearts at the top of the SPFL Championship last night as their fortunes continue to improve.
It was one of the more encouraging days for Rangers supporters in recent times, and an appropriate location for it given Central Park's near mystical status in football folklore.
All the moreso as the club is chaired these days by one of Rangers' most famous supporters - Donald Findlay QC - managed by another who contributed to their nine-in-a-row run of titles in happier times
- Jimmy Nicholl - and, most evocatively of all on a big day for the latest young midfielder seeking to become an Ibrox legend, the ground is overlooked by the Hill of Beath on which stands a statue of one Jim Baxter.
History suggests that this was
the perfect place to aid Rangers in their efforts to close the gap on Hearts. Cowdenbeath's most famous ever win may have been against Rangers but it was more than 60 years ago and there has been little sign since of it happening again.
Nor was the venue itself as inhospitable as reputation would have it: this ancient ground - which apparently depends rather more on motor racing than football to cover its costs - looked fully recovered, almost pristine, as a result of the re-turfing that was required when the playing surface was scarred after a stock car took an unexpected high velocity detour across rather than around the grass during a recent meet.
As for the hosts themselves, they may have asserted their right to pull on their preferred colour of shirts but otherwise they could hardly have been more accommodating than when they allowed Nicky Law to waltz in for the opening goal inside two minutes, exchanging passes with Kris Boyd, before calmly sliding
the ball to Robbie Thomson's right.
To Cowdenbeath's credit they responded well to the setback and were denied a penalty claim - as he tried to dribble his way past Darren McGregor, Kudas Oyenuga went down when challenged.
Referee Crawford Allan was well positioned to adjudge that there was nothing amiss, but he took a different view when the on-loan Dundee United striker tried a similar manoeuvre. This time the collision was just outside the box, however, and his free kick attempt sailed high and wide.
That came amidst a decent spell
for the hosts, though there was a reminder of what they were up against when Kenny Miller broke
on the right, forcing Marcus Fraser
to get a shift on in order to deflect
a dangerous looking angled shot over the bar.
Something the sheen was then taken off Lewis Macleod's day - he was included in Gordon Strachan's Scotland squad - when he became the first player to be yellow carded for a second clumsy, attack-ending challenge. The width of the post then denied the Fife side an equaliser after the ball broke into the path of Sean Higgins and his left-footed shot across Steve Simonsen had just enough pace to beat the goalkeeper but rebounded off his left upright.
Having done so well, not only to keep the deficit to a single goal at the break but to enjoy the better of much of the first half, the second began
just as badly for Cowdenbeath as the visitors worked clear-cut chances for both Lee McCulloch and McGregor from a brace of setpieces. Thomson, though, pulled off fine saves from
two well struck shots.
The second goal was not long delayed. Kris Boyd provided the cross from the right which Miller nodded emphatically home. It was Cowdenbeath's Kyle rather than Rangers' Kenny, though, who had risen unchallenged to provide a finish of which any striker would be proud and any defender horrified as it went in off the underside of the bar.
Once again the nature of the way the goal was conceded might have resulted in the heads of the team
that sits at the bottom of the division to go down, but once again they showed enough for much of the remainder of the half to suggest
that they are capable of lifting themselves from that position.
If anything, it was a tad harsh, then, that the margin was extended by the end of the match when David Templeton was released on the left by Ian Black and produced a finish that was almost a mirror image of Law's opener as he fired it home left-footed across Thomson.
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