 Cowdenbeath have a game in hand on a couple of their fellow relegation candidates following the postponement of their home match v Edinburgh City on Saturday but following more criticism of their manager Liam Fox on social media at the weekend the Fife club have issued a statement which is a recognition of the current peril the Blue Brazil find themselves in. Facing a third successive relegation and Lowland League football in 2017/18 the Cowden board issued this statement in local press and on social media on Tuesday 17th January 2017.THE DAYS AND THE CHALLENGES AHEAD...A STATEMENT FROM COWDENBEATH FC The advent of 2017 means it is now 100 years since the club moved to Central Park from North End Park. That anniversary is one that should indeed be marked but for now our main focus is not on the past 100 years but on the next 100 days or so. 17 League games remaining for the club this season – to all intents and purposes half a season of football still to be played. It’s time for plain-speaking – the club’s short-term ambition is to make the play-offs and thus have the opportunity to gain promotion back to League One. If not, then finishing as high up the table as possible is the aim. These will be the same aims most likely as many of our rivals and no club will wish to be involved in the play-off with a non-League club, though one will be. To that end we are actively engaged in seeking to strengthen our playing resources – again as many will do during the transfer window. We do of course hear the standard sort of advice and voluble criticism and the same simplistic solutions that are always offered when results do not go as any of us would like and feelings are being vented. The Board of Cowdenbeath FC is fully behind our manager Liam Fox as he continues to work tirelessly and professionally to build a new team at Central Park following the waygoing under freedom of contract of so many of the experienced and talented players we had not so long back. Liam has our full confidence and backing – and not in the much lampooned ‘vote of confidence’ football manner. The rebuilding of the team was to be spearheaded by the few experienced players we had retained augmented by new signings of whom three were given 2-year contracts as they were viewed as central to our plans as leaders and exemplars on the Park. These 3 key signings were well-received but have not all worked out as we had planned for various reasons although Dave McGurn has well proven his worth. In addition, the defensive experience of Kenny Adamson, now in his tenth season with the club, has not been available at all to the Manager due to injury. The core of our team thus has not been as envisaged – although other players have ably demonstrated their worth. Anyway, that is the past. Now is not the time for self-indulgence or self-pity. For every single person with Cowden's interests at heart we believe it is time for absolute realism and also for everyone pulling together like never before. The moment is now. Naive optimism, knee-jerk responses or corrosive angry pessimism are not any part of the solution. We simply now ask everyone with the good of Cowdenbeath FC at heart to adopt a genuinely positive approach for the remainder of the campaign. ‘Happy clappy’ is not needed but your support is. It may not be easy and there may be setbacks in the next few months but the goals are clear. Then in May we can take stock. In the interim, there will be a public meeting regarding the future of the club and a new scheme ‘Club 135’ which we hope will aid this. The present Board stepped in when the future of the club was gravely in doubt in 2010 and more recently our Chairman Donald Findlay personally purchased the club from Innovate (Cowdenbeath) Ltd on behalf of the whole community. The Roof Fall initiative launched in 2015 already highlighted critical aspects of the overall situation. Not least the aforementioned loss of transfer fee income and the fact that no longer does the club receive any income whatsoever from the stock car operation. These factors have permanently and majorly damaged the long-standing financial equation which underpinned the club’s operations for decades. The community and all those folks with local roots and well-wishers wherever they are will indeed be asked to show a real appetite for the challenges that lie ahead and work together with us to take our much-loved club forward. Cowdenbeath FC |
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