EoS League: Broxburn target seven-game winning streak to close the gap on joint leaders

Broxburn Athletic boss Chris Townsley believes Tranent are the team to beat in the race for the East of Scotland Premier League title this season.

Broxburn boss Chris Townsley is aiming to close the gap on league leaders Tranent and Penicuik

The Albyn Park men have fought their way up to third in the league table, despite losing their first two matches of the season, as they’ve since gone on an six-game winning streak.

With joint league-leaders Tranent and Penicuik Athletic both in cup action this weekend, Brox can pull themselves to within six points of the top two should they beat Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts tomorrow.

“Anything can happen in this league,” said Townsley. “We’ve gone on a good run but it’s just as easy to go on a bad run in this league - you could go a few games without winning, so we’re just happy to be getting the points on the board now and getting ourselves in a good position.

“We had a tough start to the season result wise against Penicuik, losing 4-1, but we were in that game for long spells and if we had scored when we were open top we would’ve probably went on to win the game. Since then we’ve done really well, we’ve been beaten by Tranent who are the outstanding team in the league from my perspective so there’s no shame in that.

“Tranent are massive favourites and to be fair, they have been the best team we’ve played. If they need to they would probably strengthen should ourselves or anyone get close to them. We need to try and get in the best position we can, and that’s our aim.”

Townsley says his buoyant side can continue to look up the table after an impressive 5-2 defeat of Jeanfield Swifts in midweek, which saw Brox leading 5-1 at half-time after an emphatic first half showing. That result put the West Lothian men five points clear of Dundonald Bluebell in the ‘best of the rest’ spot.

He continued: “We can start looking above us rather than behind us now. There is always that fear that with it being such a tight league you can quickly go from third to ninth in a week or two. We want to start looking forward, but at the same time we know it’s going to be a difficult game tomorrow. Inverkeithing have only lost two games and in [Pat] Scullion, [Greig] Spence and [Josh] Morris they have some really experienced players.

“Every game is really competitive in this league, there’s not been any easy fixture, each game has been really tough. It’s been really pleasing that we have got ourselves in to the position that we are in just now.”

Elsewhere, Leith Athletic can regain top spot in 1st Division Conference A when they look to maintain their 100-per-cent start by making it nine victories in a row away to Thornton Hibs. In the South Challenge Cup first round, Linlithgow Rose face Lowland League outfit East Stirlingshire at the Falkirk Stadium, while Musselburgh Athletic host Tynecastle in an all-Premier Division clash. Haddington Athletic entertain Dunbar United at Millfield Park in an East Lothian derby.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.If you haven't already, please consider supporting our sports coverage with a digital sports subscription.