Cowdenbeath Central v Newburgh | Hopping across The Pond

East of Scotland League

Division 3

Sunday 15th March 2026

Kick Off 12.15 Actual 12.18

Cowdenbeath Central 1 Newburgh 2, attendance 294

35’ 1-0

37’ 1-1

73’ 1-2

@ Alex Venters Memorial Park

Rose Street

Cowdenbeath

KY4 8NX

£5 Admission

Programme available, but I won’t buy one on any event organised by Groundhop U.K.

This game rounded off my weekend north of the border and was about twenty minutes drive from my hotel in Glenrothes. I arrived early and although there’s a small car park here, it was best avoided and I parked in Rose Lane, about fifty yards from the ground entrance. There’s not much here, but it’s a work in progress. The pitch is fully railed, with mesh infil and a pair of dugouts on the right hand touchline, whilst the changing rooms are behind the near goal end, raised up slightly. A tea bar operated from a hatch in the wall, with the pitch viewable when queuing, which is always a plus. I didn’t bother with food though as it was too soon after breakfast.

The match was 7th versus 5th in the league table, played with a fair wind blowing down the pitch, on a day that started off brightly, with rain arriving during the second half, which is never good at a venue with no cover. It was Central who broke the deadlock after thirty five minutes, having gone close twice in a couple of minutes leading up to the goal. Their lead lasted just two minutes though, when a corner from the right swerved inside the near post, aided by the wind. There was little between the two sides, but Newburgh managed to snatch the winner with seventeen minutes left, with a low angled shot into the far corner. The result leaves Cowdenbeath Central seventh in the table, but Newburgh are now up to fourth and have at least two games in hand on all three teams above them.

At the final whistle a large number of car drivers were racing off to get in an extra game, with a 3 o’clock kick off at Paties Road in Edinburgh. Thankfully I’d seen Edinburgh United lose 1-2 to Clydebank in a Scottish Junior Cup match there in 2005, so was able to head straight off home. The journey back south took 7 hours 58 minutes, not helped by a SatNav diversion off the M6 between J19 and J17 and the normal crawl further down from J11a to the M5 interchange, but still home in time to watch Match of the Day 2. Good to get all my planned games in and one thing’s for certain….there’ll be no scotch pies on the menu for a while!