Cove Rangers’ Ross urges toughness in battle with old foes Cowdenbeath

Scott Ross says Cove Rangers’ Central Park heartache is not on their minds as they return to Cowdenbeath as a fully-fledged SPFL club.

The Granite City outfit make the trip to Fife tomorrow to tackle the Blue Brazil.

The two teams have a history, with Cowdenbeath denying Cove promotion to League Two in a controversial pyramid play-off final at the end of 2017-18 season.

With the pair locked at 2-2 Gary Bollan’s team netted what proved to be the decisive third goal when it appeared Cove keeper Stuart McKenzie had been fouled.

And in a fiery contest Paul McManus’ second yellow card sparked a stoppage-time brawl which saw Ross and Eric Watson follow him up the tunnel.

The sides met in the Betfred Cup group stages last season, with Cowdenbeath winning a low-key contest 1-0, and as Cove prepare to play at Central Park as an SPFL club for the first time Ross says the League Two leaders are only focused on the future.

The defender, 28, said: “It’s going to be a tough game for us. We’ve played them a number of times down there and know what to expect.

“It’s going to be a battle and hopefully if we win the battle we’ll have enough quality to win the game.

“What happened two seasons ago is finished, we don’t even think about it now.

“We’ve moved on to the future. Saturday is a tough game playing Cowdenbeath away, but we’re looking to win it and that’s all we’re thinking about.

“It has been a good journey we’ve been on, but the club have been set up for that.

“We took our time to get here but we’ve reached this stage and we’re enjoying it.

“Now we want to keep it going and keep working hard.

“The aim is to win this game and keep going over the next few weeks.”

Cove got back to winning ways after defeats to Stenhousemuir and Auchinleck Talbot with Tuesday’s 3-0 success against Albion Rovers at the Balmoral Stadium.

Former Aberdeen and Peterhead player Ross added: “The last couple of weeks have been hard. We’ve maybe dipped a wee bit performance-wise.

“But looking at it we haven’t really, it’s just been one of those times when things have gone against us.

“It’s good to get back to winning ways and hopefully we can go on a winning run.

“Defenders always want to get clean sheets and it’s good to get another one.

“We’ve racked up a few this season. The issue has been when we have conceded that we’ve let in two or three. But with the experience we have that’s something we should be able to cut out.”

Cove’s dominance was such in midweek they could’ve had more than three and Ross believes the firepower at Paul Hartley’s disposal will be needed to get the better of Cowdenbeath, who are third in the table.

He said: “We know we’ve got a lot of options up front. On Tuesday you saw Martin Scott and Jordon Brown coming off the bench and they’re prolific at this level.

“Whoever starts and whoever comes on we know if they get chances they will take them.”