Both teams exchanged early blows, but with neither keeper being too troubled. Cove forced their first corner on ten minutes. Matthews easily rose to clear, where Riddell collected the ball and released Fowler, who now had space to expose and pace to burn. The winger in turn found McMillan, who threaded a first time cross to LEITH whose neat finish eventually crossed the line to cap a tidy quick break by Cowie.
Cowie continued to apply pressure, with Cahill hitting a supburb free kick only to be denied by a flying save from the keeper. This only served as a wake up for Cove who themselves saw keeper Adie pull off a wonder save from a smart free kick. Adie was beaten eventually after Cowie stopped playing with the players claiming the ball had gone out, however the Cove no.9 continued and rattled home from close range.
Due to the referee producing so many bookings in the first half, the second started a less riotous affair with the teams looking to keep all their players on the pitch, in particular the battling duo of Hudson and Watson who were both unlucky to pick up bookings early on.
Cove had the ball in the net again, only this time for the referee to correctly deny it for offside. Soon after, some tidy Cowie passing in defence, and a Taylor clearance found the energetic FOWLER who dribbled half the pitch and produced a goal from a daisy cutter hit from the edge of the box. Cowie were now being pegged back but were defending strongly until poor judgement lead to another Cove corner in the last five minutes. From the resultant corner an unmarked player rose to header home and swing the momentum in the homesides favour.
However, in Coves daring attempts to win the match it was clear they would be vulnerable at the back. This became apparent when skipper Matthews charged deep into Coves half, beating two defenders in a marvelous run, and released striker Fraser, who swung a dangerous ball into the six yarder where an unmarked McMILLAN was on hand to poke the ball home and spark joy among Cowies players and support in the closing minutes.
Cove felt hard done by the winner and instead of attemping a comeback focused more on high tackles and gave the referee no option but to send a player off and caution even more. However Cowie held on due to great work by every player on the pitch.