Central Park, Cowdenbeath may have the air of a fairground car park, and with the rumbling of stockcars in the background and torrential rain battering down on the uncovered away terracing the far side of the track surrounding the pitch, it was hard to fathom how it could have been viewed as anyone’s field of dreams.

But for East Kilbride and their sizable following, who huddled together under golf brollies on that exposed concrete expanse, that was exactly what this uniquely ramshackle old stadium represented on Saturday.

Alas, after an almighty struggle, it was here that their dream was laid to rest for at least another season, as Cowdenbeath narrowly avoided their own personal nightmare by edging out the Lowland League champions 5-3 on penalties to cling on to their place in League Two by the narrowest of margins.

After 210 minutes over two games plus added time, these two sides could not be separated, with the game on the day finishing a goal apiece after East Kilbride’s former Blue Brazil midfielder Keiran Gibbons cancelled out Fraser Mullin’s early opener for the home side.

After that bright opening for Cowdenbeath, it was Martin Lauchlin’s side who grasped the initiative, and they looked the likelier winner right up until the moment that striker Paul Woods saw his spot-kick saved by Cowden keeper Jamie Sneddon. But while East Kilbride had all the momentum in extra-time, the groans that accompanied the prospect of penalties all came from the home end given Cowdenbeath’s woeful record from 12 yards of late.

To their credit, they shrugged off the fact that they had missed their last six spot kicks to put five in a row past last week’s penalty-save hero Matt McGlinchey in the most pressurised of circumstances, and got their reward by scraping their way to survival.

Home manager Gary Locke was fulsome in his praise of the valiant visitors after the match, but the reflections on a successful season overall were for another day for devastated Kilby manager Lauchlin.

“I’m too disappointed to even think about that,” he said. “We won the league fairly early, so we had a long spell before we actually came to these playoffs and we wanted it so much.

“When we got the goal back, I actually thought it was written in the stars that we were going to get the goal, and then to lose so cruelly was gutting.

“Credit to Gary Locke, I think he’s done a terrific job here and he has done really well, because if that was the Cowden team that we played in the Scottish Cup then I think we would have been up.

“We’ll dust ourselves down and go again, but it’s going to be a long summer, that’s for sure.”

Perhaps in days to come, Lauchlin will be consoled by the words of his victorious counterpart in the home dugout, who thinks it is simply a matter of time before East Kilbride gatecrash the party in the fourth tier.

“Hopefully they’ll change the leagues in the summer and we’ll get up,” joked Lauchlin. “It’s been a long road and we had a rebuild last summer, so to win the league in the style we did was absolutely brilliant.

“To then win the first play-off after going two goals down in the first game showed terrific character, and last week when Cowdenbeath missed the last-minute penalty, you are thinking that it is your year.”

It was not to be, but the Cowdenbeath dressing room was hardly a scene of celebration either. Goalscorer Mullen admitted that the overriding feeling was one of relief.

“I don’t think I’ve scored a goal as important as that with what it means to the club,” he said. “The club have already faced two relegations, so if we had gone down at the end it would have been an absolute disaster.

“You saw from East Kilbride that there are good teams in that league, so if you go down there then you don’t know what’s going to happen. It was so important to keep us up in this league.

“We dug in and we believed in ourselves, because I don’t think anybody else did.”

Mullen would be delighted if the club can hold on to manager Gary Locke and assistant Billy Brown, who missed the midfielder’s goal as he arrived at the game late from the airport, interrupting a holiday in Magaluf to lend his support to the cause.

If the experienced duo can be persuaded to stay for another season, Mullen believes they can put make the most of their reprieve to challenge at the right end of the table next year.

“The manager has been brilliant, he’s been first class,” he said. “Everybody knows their jobs and the boys are all working hard for each other.

“Most of us are out of contract in the summer, but hopefully we can keep the team together because with the spirit we’ve showed over the last couple of months, it would be good to try and build on it next season if the manager stayed too.

“I think we were unlucky to be in the play-offs, but we did well to win it.

“I’ll get away to Rome now with my girlfriend for a wee holiday and forget about football for a while, it’s been a long season. I’ll leave Magaluf to Billy Brown!”