Cowdenbeath face Arbroath tomorrow with the lead at the top of the IRN-BRU Second Division at stake and Blue Brazil captain Jon Robertson is delighted to be going into the game with some goals behind him as his Dad had been giving him plenty of stick for not scoring last season.
Robertson said, “Last season in the First Division was a strange one for me as no matter what I did I couldn’t grab a goal which is not ideal for an attacking midfielder. This season I am up to six, including one in the Scottish Cup at Bo’ness and one against Albion Rovers last weekend. Thankfully that has kept my Dad quiet as he was always mentioning the fact I had not scored last season.”
The 22-year-old Edinburgh born player joined up at Central Park from Murieston Boys club when Cowdenbeath were in the Second Division under the guidance of Brian Welsh, who is now in charge of the Youth set-up at Livingston, and Robertson made his debut in January 2008.
Robertson said, “We defeated Ayr that day 2-0 at Central Park and I came off the bench pretty close to the end. I gradually forced my way into the starting line-up and I have been here ever since through a few ups and downs, promotions and relegations and spells in and out of the team.”
Robertson suffered his first demotion at the end of that season when Arbroath knocked his side out at the Semi-Final stage of the Play-Offs and the following season, under the guidance of current St. Mirren manager Danny Lennon, the Blue Brazil finished in second place to Dumbarton in the Third Division.
This time around Cowdenbeath got to the Finals of the Play-Offs only to lose out on penalties against Stenhousemuir with Robertson saying, “I was in line to take the sixth penalty but I was not needed as we lost 5-4. We had been relegated the season before, and have been relegated since, but sitting at Ochilview having missed out on promotion remains the worst feeling I have had in football.”
“We should have won the League outright as we had led the table more than anyone and we played well in that Second Leg of the Final. I felt rotten for a good few days afterwards.”
Cowdenbeath were promoted as cash problems engulfed Livingston and as the move happened just days before the season kicked off, they were favourites to move out of the Division within a year.
They did move out but not in the manner expected with Robertson saying, “Danny is a really enthusiastic coach and that rubs off on everyone. Everybody had us down as the whipping boys when the Livingston thing happened.”
“We had been getting prepared to face East Stirling only to be told we would be facing Arbroath. Everyone was thinking I told you so after we lost our first game against Arbroath and had two men sent off.”
After a few week’s Lennon’s side found their feet and they moved into top spot in November and they were never out of the top three afterwards as Stirling Albion and Alloa as well as the Central Park men fought it out to win the automatic Play-Off spot.
Robertson said, “We should have won the League as well after an eleven game unbeaten run gave us a great platform. Stirling and Alloa were in the mix as well and two games cost us the title. We were three up against Brechin and then three up against Stirling and on both occasions negativity crept in from somewhere and we ended up only drawing.”
The Play-Offs beckoned once more and Robertson and his colleagues defeated the Wasps 3-1 on aggregate at the Semi-Final stage to book their place in the Final against Brechin City with a place in the First Division at stake.
“Both games were live on BBC ALBA which was a great experience,” said Robertson before adding, “but I have found it strange since then to watch myself and not have a clue what is getting said about me as I don’t know any Gaelic.”
The first leg in Fife ended in a goalless stalemate and Robertson moved from a starting position to being on the substitute’s bench and he came on with an hour played with his side leading by three goals, again!
Robertson said, “We were still nervous as we had leads before but we saw that game out. It would be fair to say that we enjoyed ourselves that night when we got back to Cowdenbeath.”
The success prompted St. Mirren to take Lennon to Paisley and the experienced figure of Jimmy Nicholl came in and Cowdenbeath almost pulled off another great achievement by staying up.
“Under Jimmy we made a great start but eventually the full time teams showed there was a gap between us. The winter did not help as we were playing and not training or training and not playing, but there was some great games to play in during the season, against Raith Rovers and Dunfermline for example.”
“I enjoyed those games and the fans enjoyed then but it was another up and down season. I was disappointed at not scoring in the First Division but more disappointed that we were relegated via the Play-Offs when Brechin got a measure of revenge.”
Nicholl left for Kilmarnock in the summer and his playing assistant Colin Cameron stepped into the Manager’s Office and he quickly summoned for Robertson to visit him.
Robertson said, “The manager asked me to go and see him and when I was there he gave me the captains armband. I honestly wanted to do cartwheels I was that ecstatic at being asked to be skipper. I don’t think I was able to answer him when he asked me what I thought.”
“I was fairly proud of myself as I am not your stereotypical kind of captain as I am not that loud, vocal or aggressive but I suppose I lead by example. The manager told me that is what earned him the role of captain of Hearts and that is good enough for me.”
Being captain of course means that Robertson has to lead Cameron on the pitch and it has not been a hardship with the skipper saying, “I did think it would be a difficult thing to do, but so far I have not had too many reasons to get on at him. He is a really clever player and he sits back a bit in the midfield to give us a good balance when players dart forward.”
Another thing that Cameron does for the team is that he increases the average age of the squad with Robertson saying, “I am only 22 but I am leading a young team. If you take the boss out of the team that played Albion Rovers last week, we had an average age of 21 and the oldest player was 24. You can see how much we benefit from the experience he gained with Scotland and Hearts and the top leagues in England.”
The Blue Brazil youngsters are certainly gaining experience in tough venues with Robertson saying, “The Bo’ness tie in the Scottish Cup at their place was a good experience for us as we were up against a lot of players that had played Senior and they had a big support backing them. One of our former players Jay Shields played against us and he was a real nuisance for the entire game.”
On League affairs Cowdenbeath and Arbroath have been neck and neck now for 10 games with Robertson saying, “We seem to be trading blow for blow with each other and it has certainly made us determined. We were behind 3 times at Albion Rovers last week but came back every time and we left thinking that we had dropped two points behind but it turned out the point we had gained had kept us in top spot. We didn’t know whether we should be happy or disappointed.”
As for facing the Gayfield side this weekend Robertson said, “Every game is important but this one is a bit special. We need a good team performance to win it after two draws. Against Dumbarton our defence was good but we could not score and against Albion Rovers we lost poor goals but scored three times. If we can get both attack and defence on form we have a good chance of winning.”
“Our former captain Mark Baxter plays for them and this will be his first trip back and he will want to show how good a right back he is. Hopefully he will leave disappointed as our aim this season is to win the League and a win over Arbroath would certainly help that.”
Robertson added, “Another promotion by the play-offs would be acceptable and we are on course for that.”
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