The growing injury list meant starting places for some players who were probably not 100% including Ross, Doris, Redman and Rennie while the bench looked threadbare including a probably unfit McLaughlin and youth player McIlravey.
A blustery wind on a bright afternoon didn't cause too many problems. The crowd - at 488 was meagre - despite Cowden's title challenge and Lichties battle for survival
In the end we deserved the hard earned point against a busy forceful Cowdenbeath side who showed their determination throughout despite an error-strewn performance.
First half was remarkably open. Both sides carved openings in the first 20 minutes with Redman heading against the bar and other chances goign astray. At the other end Cowden seemed to go close on a few occasions with one header hitting the top of our bar. Cowdens midfielder was lucky to be on the field, his elbow cutting open Dori's forehead then hacking down the bandaged player 10 minutes late
Four minutes before halftime Ross made a good block on their central defender's pass out, ran forward and shot, the ball broke to doris who fed Gibson who showed composure to slot the ball past Hay for a rare goal
Second half with the wind at their backs Cowden controlled possession and Arbroath were forced onto the back foot and increrasingly the game was played ion our half leaving us only occasional breaks upfield. On on of these breaks a great exchange of interpassing saw the ball fed to Doris who had to rush the final shot. Booth also looked dangerous probing down the left
We seemed to be struggling for fitness across the field, fans were surprised when Gibson was subbed (for Mclean) then Rennie (for McIlravey), then Ross (for Nimmo) . the replacements found it hard to get into the game and were then backs to the wall with the likes of Doris, twice injured and Ross struggling through.
We retreated a bit too far into our own box and a corner on the right was headed goalwards then converted by Wardlaw after 76 minutes. Thereafter Cowden looked the likelier to nick the game though we did threaten again. The laissez faire refereeing allowed strongarm Cowden more leeway than us and he played on through some clear fouls much to the disgust of home fans
A hard won draw which, with our nearest rivals going down, may be significant - we're in touching distance of Stenny. the big question is - will we have many fit players for the remaining games