COWDENBEATH will travel to Station Park this Saturday six points adrift at the foot of the cinch League Two table.

The narrow defeat at Elgin saw the home side double their advantage over the Blue Brazil, and manager Maurice Ross is very aware that now is the time that his side need to start picking up wins, but he is not flying any distress flares ahead of this weekend's clash with second-place Forfar Athletic.

While the six-point gap between Cowden and Elgin City seems a fairly substantial total, a run of wins could soon change that - so when they Ross's side go to meet the Loons on Saturday, victory will be the aim for Cowden.

Forfar have their own agenda, but like Cowden they too fell 1-0 to league leaders Kelty Hearts in their most recent outing, with Alfredo Agyeman's goal at New Central Park the difference.

Forfar will therefore be desperate to get back on the rails this weekend to stay in the promotion race.

Speaking to the Times ahead of the match, Ross commented: “The game at Elgin saw a few things go the wrong way, such as losing skipper Craig Barr after only a few minutes with a wee problem, then the goal that City got taking a wicked deflection, while at the other end Quinn Coulson and Kyle Miller were both unlucky with their shots which could have earned a point.

“I felt we posed Elgin a lot of problems in the second period on Saturday, and had quite a few good chances, but maybe we need to ensure key passes in the last third are better.

“We just could not get that elusive goal to boost our hopes and confidence levels, but the attitude of the players was good and they ran their hearts out for the club."

The manager fears that striker Kris Renton could be out for several weeks yet.

Renton has been sidelined for the last two games and his presence has been missed in attack.

He has scored two of Cowden's nine league goals this season.

“Kris has a knee problem which is going to take time to heal which leaves us a little short in attack," Ross remarked.

“We have only two out and out strikers fit but I feel we can find a system which suits what we have meantime and then in January we can get a few players in to give us a better balance in the squad. We will have a plan in place to move forward positively, for our remit for this season is to keep the club in the league and that is the utmost priority.

“The players have shown real determination in the last two games and when we go to Forfar, if we work as hard as we did at Elgin and against Kelty, I believe we can get a good result.”

Skipper Craig Barr is expected to be fit for the match.

Meanwhile, it was announced on Sunday that young midfielder James Collins has left the club by mutual consent.

Cowden's home Boxing Day fixture with Edinburgh City has also been moved to Wednesday, December 22, (7.45pm) at the request of both clubs.