Tranent display their Lowland League credentials with dominant victory over title contenders Open Goal Broomhill

Colin Nish hailed his depleted Tranent squad as his Belters delivered huge a statement of intent with a resounding 4-0 victory over Open Goal Broomhill to move up to joint second in the Lowland League.
Tranent put on a show under the lights in front of a crowd of 658Tranent put on a show under the lights in front of a crowd of 658
Tranent put on a show under the lights in front of a crowd of 658

Boss Nish was without several first team regulars through injury, while Oban Anderson's red card appeal for his sending-off in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Rangers was thrown out under two hours ahead of kick-off.

"I am delighted," said a beaming Nish. "We were really down to the bare bones before the game and I couldn't pick a team until after about six o'clock. We were waiting on an appeal on our centre midfielder Oban who got sent off on Saturday, wrongly in my opinion.

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"We had boys playing out of position but the commitment and discipline that they showed was outstanding. I couldn't be happier with them, it's a great result, especially after Saturday - as much as we drew with probably the best team in the league, we felt we probably should have won it.

"We asked the lads to stick together and they really did tonight. We said to the players on Saturday that if we managed to put in the right performance, that people would take notice of it, and we said that again to them before tonight. We feel we have put a marker down."

Striker Martin Maughan got the home side off to a flyer after five minutes at Foresters Park when he took advantage of a defensive slip, but still had it all to do as he planted a pinpoint strike past goalkeeper David Wilson from the edge of the box.

Tranent were quite happy to sit in and invite Simon Ferry's side onto them, knowing the pace of their front three would trouble the visitors on the break. So it proved after 20 minutes when on-loan Hamilton Accies frontman Adam McGowan netted after an incisive break down the right.

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Nicky Reid put the home side in dreamland when he struck their third six minutes later with a shot from the edge of the box which Wilson should have done better with.Broomhill did have chances to pull a goal back, but found Tranent keeper Kelby Mason on top form.

18-year-old McGowan put Nish's side out of reach when he fired in via a deflection just five minutes into the second half.

Tranent are now level with Spartans in second place with three victories from their last four matches. Spartans take visit University of Stirling on Wednesday night ahead of hosting Tranent on Saturday.

The match represents a free hit for Tranent, with Nish revealing they are ahead of a five-game points target.

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Nish added: “Things are going along nicely at the minute and we are really happy. Obviously that can change quickly, we are well aware of that.

"The idea was to get as many points as we could on the board, and with that result tonight, the boys have went above what we thought we were going to get and we've got a game to go yet. We set ourselves a five game points target before we played Dalbeattie and the boys are ahead of schedule, so Saturday is effectively a free game for us. We will go there full of confidence.”

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