COWDENBEATH will turn their attention to moving up the Lowland League table after making it through to the second round of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup.
Dougie Hill's team defeated Rutherglen Glencairn at Central Park on Saturday in the first round of the tournament, and were handed a tie away to The Spartans in Sunday's draw.
That match, at Ainslie Park, will take place on October 26 and, before then, the Blue Brazil will be looking for much-needed league points to move away from the lower reaches of the table.
Prior to their match at home to second bottom Broomhill on Tuesday evening, they had accumulated seven points from nine games, sitting 15th in the standings.
READ MORE: Docherty's at the double as Cowden make cup progress
This weekend will see them visit Gretna, who are above them, and Hill acknowledges the importance of finding form in their league matches.
He said after the victory over Glencairn that he was without nine players for the cup tie.
In addition to injuries to Ewan and Greg MacPherson, skipper Robbie McNab, Aiden McLaughlin, Danny Swanson and Rhys Walker, on-loan Dunfermline Athletic forward, Jake Sutherland, was unavailable as his parent club did not want him cup tied.
Cowden were also without Aaron Dunsmore, who left the club last week after being released from his contract due to work commitments, and Sean Guiney, who recently moved on loan to Penicuik Athletic until January.
"It was always going to be a pretty tough ask with so many unavailable, and in the first period they were the better side, but the goal we lost was so very avoidable,” said the manager.
"In the second half we came right back at them and I felt Riley Haston proved a real handful for Rutherglen, and deserved his goal, and he could have had more.
"Jamie Docherty was a real handful for them and what proved to be the winner was a fantastic finish, and in the second half as a whole, we did very well as a team."
Hill also had praise for each of the 13 players used in the cup tie, but said that his team now had to concentrate on picking up points to move up the Lowland League, after a run of five league matches without a win.
Although he wasn't expecting any other players to be available for the Broomhill match, other than Sutherland, Hill is hopeful one or two more could make the trip to Gretna.
"It is possible we could have three more players ready to get back into action at Gretna which would be good, because we really need to increase our strength for we have to start picking up points and move up the table,” he added.
Hill also indicated that himself and Paul McLean had picked up knocks at Broxburn, in their last league outing, but both were on the bench for the cup-tie, with McLean playing the second period.
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