Scottish League One play-off: Cowdenbeath 1-0 Queen's Park (1-2)
- Published
Greig Spence scored for Cowdenbeath
Greig Spence's 19th goal of the season wasn't enough to prevent Cowdenbeath being relegated to the League Two, their second demotion in two years.
The prolific striker glanced in a close ranger header but it's Queen's Park who progress to face Clyde in the play-off final with the first leg at home.
Chris Duggan's double in the first game of this tie at Hampden Park proved good enough to take the Spiders through.
It condemns the Fifers to the fourth tier for the first time in seven years.
Unfortunately Duggan is highly unlikely to play any further part in Queen's Park's promotion push as he went off with a hamstring injury midway through the first half.
Cowdenbeath player/manager Colin Nish made five changes to the side that lost 2-0 in midweek and they certainly gave it their best shot to get back into the tie.
The problem is in the first half they came up against side shrewdly organised by their boss Gus McPherson as they defended in depth to frustrate the Blue Brazil for long spells.
Even when the Fifers did have a clear look at goal they lacked the quality to exploit them as Chris Kane, Lewis Milne and Craig Johnston all missed decent first half chances.
They also came up against a decent goalkeeper as Willie Muir proved with a good save to keep out a Kane shot early on to prevent the home side gaining any momentum.
Spence finally broke the deadlock after the visitors failed to defend a corner they believed shouldn't have been awarded in the first place and referee Craig Charleston sent manager McPherson to the stand for comments made in the aftermath.
By contrast Nish was able to bring himself on as a substitute to try and influence things but neither he nor anyone else could get the goal to take the match into extra time.
Queen's Park manager Gus McPherson: "I was annoyed because it was clearly our goal kick and not their corner when they got their goal, but I thought my players really saw the game out strongly.
"We are looking forward to the final now as we have had a lot of tough games against Clyde this season and these two will be exactly the same."