Cowdenbeath

Cowdenbeath spent last season in the Lowland League, the tier they dropped into in 2022 after their run in the SPFL system ended — the club's first spell outside it since 1921. Central Park, their ground since 1917, holds 4,309, though crowds there now settle for far less than that on an ordinary Saturday.

The nickname carries more weight than the results ever have: The Blue Brazil has followed the team through decades in the lower divisions, worn with the kind of irony that only sticks to a club that has spent most of its life outside the top flight. Founded in 1881 — the club's own history traces it to a June 1880 merger with Raith Rovers, renamed Cowdenbeath in 1882, though most reference sources settle on 1881 — Cowdenbeath has one season in Scotland's top division to point to, 1970-71, and it lasted just that one year before they went straight back down.

What they have won came at the level football writers rarely dwell on: the old Second Division titles of 1913-14, 1914-15 and 1938-39, then the Third Division in 2005-06 and League Two in 2011-12. Add to that a long list of Fife Cup wins stretching back to 1885, and the shape of the club's history becomes clear — a team built for grinding through the lower leagues rather than troubling the ones above.

That regional weight is where the rivalry lives. The Fife derby pits Cowdenbeath against Dunfermline Athletic and Raith Rovers, with East Fife also drawn into it, but it's Dunfermline who carry the sharper edge — a rivalry that came to a head in May 2014, when a play-off between the two decided who stayed up and who didn't.