Bo'ness cup hero: Win over Kilwinning can kick-start season

The BUs were massive underdogs for the third round Scottish Junior Cup clash after a poor start to the campaign, but dominated from start to finish to book their place in the last 32.

Scott, who fired a lethal double and set up striker partner Fraser Keast in the second half, believes they can go all the way in the competition if they can maintain Saturday’s performance levels.

“It’s been a tough season but these are the games you want to play in. To get three goals – two goals and an assist for myself – and a clean sheet most importantly, was brilliant,” said Scott, who joined in the summer from Camelon.

“As long as you are in the hat for the next round of the Scottish after Christmas, you’ve always got a chance. We’ve shown that on our day we can beat anybody. If we can continue to do that and take our momentum into the league, we’ll be absolutely fine.

“They are a decent outfit. I went out to them with Camelon a couple of seasons ago and they hammered us 4-1. They are a good side and they’re flying so the boys did absolutely magnificent; I thought everyone in the team was superb.

“We spoke about how they would come here and be really up for it given how they are flying in their league. We’ve had a difficult start, but this is our home park and a lot of fans come along and pay their money to come and watch us and the standards you could say haven’t been where they should be for a club the size of Bo’ness. We were determined to put on a performance.

“In many respects some games this season we’ve been waiting for the penny to drop, so maybe this will propel us forward. We’ll go into the next few weeks with a lot of confidence.”

Bo’ness currently sit in the bottom three of the Super League, while Kilwinning are second top of the West equivalent, however it was the home side who looked like the form team as they battered their visitors in the first half.

Scott’s opener after 14 minutes was sublime. The frontman collected a fine defence-splitting pass from Hamilton loanee Marc Kelly and fired a unstoppable first-time strike across goal and into the top corner past goalkeeper Adam Strain.

It should have been two just four minutes later when defender Scott Gibb somehow scooped the ball over the bar from just three yards out when it looked easier to score.

Stuart Hunter then had a header blocked on the line as Bo’ness had Kilwinning on the ropes. The visitors’ first sight of goal came through Bryan  Boylan with Hunter flinging himself in front of the shot to block.

The home side continued to dominate after the interval and got the second goal their play merited on 51 minutes.

Scott was tremendous in the build-up, skinning defender Craig Pettigrew down the right and running down the byeline to pull the ball back for Keast, who sidefooted the ball into the rood of the net.

The visitors’ afternoon went from bad to worse when defender Thomas Maitland saw red, his second booking shown for dissent on 70 minutes.

Bo’ness made sure of the win when Scott latched on to Keast’s through ball after he had skinned three defenders and just got the ball away in time before being clattered, with Scott running through to slip the ball under Strain.

Bo’ness United: Murphy, Snowdon (Batchelor), Gibb (Gillespie), Campbell, Hunter, Shirra, Jacobs, Gemmell, Keast (Millar), Kelly, Scott.

Kilwinning Rangers: Strain, Latta, McCloskey, Pettigrew, Maitland, Frye, Monti, McGuiness (Lewis), Winters (Wardrope), Nisbet, Boylan.