Saturday 14th March 2026 ko 13:15

Lowland League

COWDENBEATH 0

BERWICK RANGERS 2 (Binnie 1 16)

Att 406

Entry £11

Programme £3.50

You could say GroundhopUK and Cowdenbeath go back a fair way. After all Chris Berezai and I visited Central Park back in 2008 to watch Annan Athletic’s first game in the Scottish League, from then the Blue Brazil’s fortunes rocketed, the club were playing in what is now called the Scottish Championship in 2010. But from that zenith the club’s form plummeted, and by the time we visited Kelty Hearts on the 2018 Hop, Cowdenbeath were back in the bottom tier of the SPFL. The assumption seemed to be that Kelty would swap places with the Fife neighbours.

It didn’t quite work out that way, Kelty beat Brechin City in the 2021 Promotion Play-Off, while Cowdenbeath survived play-offs versus East Kilbride in both 2017 and 2018, but lost to Bonnyrigg Rose in 2022, ending 117 years of league membership.

Central Park is one of the great oddities of Scottish football, in that it is primarily a Stock Car racing circuit, and the cars do take priority.  The ground has been open since 1917, the club moving from North End Park. The main stand dates from 1922 making it one of the oldest surviving stands in Scottish Football but only survives a fire destroyed the other half in 1992. In its place the more modern structure was built making the place close to unique in having two main stands!

Central Park’s oval was used for Greyhound Racing between 1928 and 1965 when it was redeveloped for Speedway. Unfortunately the Fife Lions only lasted two seasons, by the looks of things the folks round here prefer 4 wheels! Stock Cars arrived in 1970 and as a racing stadium Central Park gained it’s name of the Racewall for it’s unforgiving concrete wall that surrounds the track. I must admit I wouldn’t fancy running into it, let alone at speed!

We were slightly restricted in when this game could kick off, but the club did make our lives easy, even helping Craig by supplying a quiet room for him to make up the programme packs there the previous day. And while few would place Central Park in the top ten best football grounds the place does have character by the bucketload, and the travelling Berwick fans helped too! Its not often you get this many English people at a Scottish football match!

The game was settled quickly by two predatory strikes by Greg Binnie, and try as they might Cowdenbeath couldn’t find a way back into the match. It was a classic case of being caught cold!