It was always going to be a hard-fought game between these two sides but in the end it was lady luck who came to the rescue for the visitors. They survived a pounding on their goal but hit Musselburgh with two sucker punches in the second half.
M
usselburgh manager Davy McGlynn couldn't believe his side were out of the cup: "We battered their goal for 90 minutes but couldn't get the single goal which would've made all the difference.
"We played exceptionally well today but if you don't take the chances on offer then you pay for it in the end.
"We badly missed our top goalscorer from last season, Chris King. He got 35 goals last season and would have made a difference today. To be fair to Bo'ness, they defended well even though they could hardly get out of their own half for long spells. Bo'ness are a Super League side and it showed just how good we have to be to overcome sides like that.
"It gives us a good idea how we would fare against Super League sides every week if we get promotion. They scored their second goal after we had to switch to four up front in an attempt to draw level and they hit us on the break. I can't fault any of the players because they have done very well recently. As for today, with 20 minutes to go I thought 'we're not going to score today'."
In front of a big crowd Bo'ness came to Olive Bank expecting an onslaught, and they got it. Musselburgh had the best of the chances on offer with both Ryan McCallum and Chris Gordon missing several opportunities to score the opener.
Into the second half and Bo'ness made the breakthrough in 47 minutes. Jon Mitchell's cross was sliced by Andy Porteous towards his own goal. David Morrison ran in and on the goal-line slammed the ball into the net against the run of play. Bo'ness then had their best spell for 20 minutes.
Back came Musselburgh but once again they missed a lot of chances. Manager McGlynn then changed the formation to a 2-4-4 in an effort to get an equaliser but this proved costly as with five minutes to go Bo'ness hit them on the break. A quick free kick was taken by Will Snowdon who fed the unmarked David Morrison. His shot was blocked but Scott Brown following up drove the ball into the net to secure the victory.
Bo'ness will take their place in the second round draw knowing Lady Luck was with them on Saturday. However, they won and Musselburgh will have to wait another year before they have a chance again. It's not always the best side who wins silverware, it's the side who know they're lucky and take advantage of it.
Bo'ness boss Eric Sinclair was gracious enough to acknowledge Musselburgh were the better side on the day. "We were very lucky to go in at the break 0-0 because we just didn't threaten them in the first half. We rode our luck a bit. But we battled for everything we got. It was a hard, hard game for us. We started with a back three but after about ten minutes we had to switch Will Snowdon back into a back four because they were over-running us. We settled after that but it was a difficult half for us. We got a quick break after half-time and had our best spell.
"They then came back at us, but the longer the game went on I thought they wouldn't score. We hit them with another goal with about five minutes to go and their heads dropped. We battled hard for each other but it was our defence who were terrific.
"We're delighted to be in the hat for the second round draw. We've now had two very difficult cup ties, both away from home and won both of them so we'll take a lot of confidence from these games. We had a big travelling support with us and that gave the players a lift. Now all we want is a home draw in the next round."
Musselburgh: McPherson, Porteous (Devlin), Bain, Mitchell, Ramage, Kelly, Gordon, Currie, McCallum, King, Tansey (Gibson). Subs: Jamieson, Sweeney.
Bo'ness: Logan, G Brown, Fullarton, Scott (Caine), Tully, Mullen, Mitchell, Snowdon, Muir (S Brown), Allison (Mauchline), Morrison. Sub: Kirkwood.
The full article contains 793 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
