The Rose Go Marching On 2

Yesterday saw the second round of the OVD Scottish Junior Cup which saw mixed fortunes from the West Lothian sides. A couple of the matched did have some Lib Dem political significance to them.

In the Battle of the Lib Dem Blogs Linlithgow Rose, whose ground I have canvassed and delivered leaflet all around, carried on their defence of this trophy beating fellow Blogger Iain Dale's Irvine Meadows 4-2. I hope that if Iain got to the match at Prestonfield that he did actually enjoy it, even if the 6 goal-fest didn't go in his teams favour.

In the Linlithgow and Falkirk East vs Dunfermline and West Fife Parliamentary constituency match up, Whitburn Juniors whose ground is in the first ward I stood for beat Crossgates Primrose 3-0

Stoneyburn Juniors from where I first lived when I came to Scotland lost out 2-0 to Kelty Hearts from the home town of the Willie Rennie MP.

Other West Lothian wins were:

Bo'ness United 7 (seven) Dufftown 0
Troon 1 Bathgate Thistle 3
Harthill Royal 3 Longside 0

Before any pedants point out to me that Harthill is in Lanarkshire I'm claiming their locality as West Lothian because their Gibbshill Park is in Greenrigg and therefore just on the West Lothian side of that particular urban area.

However, for another year it is farewell to local sides Armadale Thistle, Broxburn Athletic, Livingston United and West Calder United who all lost out by a single goal.

The Rose Go Marching on

Well the Scottish Junior Cup holders are making the most of the new set up for the Scottish Cup.

Following up their 6-0 win down at Newton Stewart in the first round Linlithgow Rose took on East of Scotland League side Spartans. Spartans are no slouches in the Scottish Cup. In 2005-6 they beat league sides Berwick Rangers and Queen's Park (sadly not at Hampden) before holding St. Mirren (who went on to promotion to the SPL) to a goalless draw at home before losing at Love Street. And in 2003-4 they claimed the scalps of Alloa and Arbroath before losing out to returning former tenants of their City Park ground Livingston who were at that time in the SPL who were heading to the Semi-Finals and CIS Cup win that season.

But the Junior Cup holders didn't show any fear for one of the regular giant killers of recent years. Instead they carried out their own act of giant killing. For it was the home side that lifted the crowd at Prestonfield when Bradley scored in the 24th minute. A lead they maintained until the half time break, when the result earned almost as big a cheer as the Dunfermline losing scoreline announcement at fellow West Lothian side Livingston's ground.

In the second half Spartans did strike back on 54 minutes with a penalty strike by McLeod. But t he little teams lead was restored 4 minutes later when Donnolly scored their second. With just over 10 minutes to go Rose then killed the game off with two strikes in just over a minute from Tyrell and Hogg.

Linlithgow Rose make it into Saturday's draw when big local rivals Livingston of the Iron Bru Scottish Football League Division join many of the other SFL teams in the draw.