[ritchiebaby]

As mentioned in another post in another thread on another forum, I've seen some great sporting moments at Central Park. Occasionally at the football, but mostly at the stock car racing. Ex-Cowdenbeath FC chairman Gordon MacDougall was World Superstox Champion twice in the seventies, back in the days when the stock cars attracted 10 times the spectators that the football did, and probably still does. Gordon, pictured below in his heyday, is now chairman of Livingston FC.


There were all kinds of cars, from the Superstox to the rustbucket bangers in the demolition derby, and even members of the public had the chance to drive their cars round the track. Some did and a few even managed to finish up in the barrier!

But enough of this looking back, I'm looking forward to another victory for Hibs on Saturday, as a win would keep the pressure up on QOS before we meet them the following Saturday at Easter Road. We'll probably lose a goal, but I'm sure we're capable of scoring at least 3 in reply. We're very competitive at the minute and have a new-found belief about us, but our attitude must be spot on in all games. Onwards and upwards for the Hibees is now the expectation among the Hibs fans, not just wishful thinking, like it was 5 or 6 weeks ago.

Cowdenbeath are bottom of the league, 7 points and 22 goals behind Hibs. Rangers beat them comfortably enough in Tuesday's game BUT - there's always a but with Hibs -  "in Kudus Oyenuga the hosts had a player of pace, intent and trickery. One run from Oyenuga - who was full of devilish style - saw the ball being hooked off the line." Oyenuga is on loan from Dundee United until January and has scored 3 goals in his 8 appearances. The Blue Brazil's biggest problem is in defence, losing 30 goals in 11 Championship games. They are almost guaranteed to leak goals, but can certainly give opposition teams a few problems during the game. They've beaten 3rd placed Queen of The South at Central Park and it took a 4th minute injury time goal from Jason Cummings to beat them at Easter Road.

My Hibs team would be

Oxley,
Fontaine, Hanlon, Booth,
Gray, Allan, McGeouch, Kennedy, Stevenson,
Cummings, Malonga.

Stanton, Handling and Sinclair as used substitutes.

[ritchiebaby]

Well, Hibs eventually managed to win 2-1 against Cowdenbeath. Goals from Paul Hanlon and Jason Cummings in the first half seemed to put us on easy street, BUT - and remember there's always a but with Hibs - we did our best to lose the initiative and let them back into the game. Mark Oxley went off injured at half-time and Kleton Pernetreau came on in the second half. Hopefully Oxley's substitution was only a precautionary measure, but Pernetreau did well when required.

With all due respect to the other teams, Hibs biggest game of the season so far will be next week's with Queen of the South visiting Easter Road. Oxley might be missing and Malonga will be missing on Africa Cup of Nations qualifying games duty with Congo against Nigeria at home and Sudan away. After all the promise shown recently, we must keep the pressure on the teams above us. A 2 goal win against Queens will see us move into third, so there's plenty of incentive for us.

There'll be no match thread for next Saturday, as I'll be sunning myself in Hurghada, but hopefully I'll be coming back to another Hibs victory. It's been 3 home draws and 3 away wins since our defeat against Queens at Palmerston Park, so an improvement at Easter Road will be most welcome.

GGTTH