Bonnyrigg Rose knock Rangers B off Lowland League summit as Spartans maintain pace

Bonnyrigg Rose showed no signs of the selection issues that threatened their match with East Stirlingshire to move top of the Lowland League with a 1-0 win at The Falkirk Stadium.

Bonnyrigg goalscorer Kieran McGachie. Picture: Scott Louden

Kieran McGachie knocked in from close range as the visitors made their numerical advantage count just four minutes after the Shire captain Kieran Gibbons was shown a second yellow card on 57 minutes.

The match had been in doubt after positive lateral flow tests were recorded among the New Dundas Park playing staff which stretched Robbie Horn’s selection options to the limit with a number of injuries already impacting the squad.

However the application to have the match postponed was dismissed and Horn drafted in development squad players to boost the first team’s cause – and the resilience paid off as Rose knocked Rangers B off the summit with 19 points.

Spartans are just a point behind Rose in third place after coming from two down to win 3-2 at Bo’ness United.

They hit the skids at Bo'ness where Max Christie’s side raced into a 2-0 lead before being pegged back by a Blair Henderson double, both laid on by Sam Newman and a late winner from Michael Bolochoweckyj to move joint second.

In the East of Scotland Premier Division Broxburn Athletic leapfrogged Musselburgh Athletic with a fourth league win in a row – a dominant 4-0 defeat of Hill of Beath at Albyn Park.Broxburn were out of the traps quickly and netted the opener after just four minutes through striker Greg Binnie. They were soon celebrating number two as Jackson Barker fired in after 16 minutes, and it only got worse for the visitors who went down to ten men before the interval then striker Ross Allum netted a second half double.Elsewhere in the Premier Division, Dunbar United were held 1-1 at Blackburn United while Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale lost heavily, 5-0 at Dundonald Bluebell.

In the conferences, Zander Diamond’s Syngenta side defeated Livingston United 2-0 at Ochilview and West Calder United were defeated 3-1 by Edinburgh College in conference X.

Heriot-Watt University saw off Hawick Royal Albert 4-1 in Conference B.

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