Jeanfield park the rollercoaster and cruise to cup place

Jeanfield Swifts are through to the Scottish Cup first round after a 4-1 win over Whitehill Welfare at Riverside.

Swifts’ season has been something of a rollercoaster with results being hindered by injury and suspensions and once again Ross Gunnion’s squad was somewhat depleted.

However, it wasn’t a problem with the Perth side effectively having the tie won by half-time.

Chris McLeish started things off for Jeanfield with the opener on nine minutes and Gary Fergus added a second 10 minutes later.

Fergus made it three just before half-time to put Swifts on easy street at the break. Ricky Miller pulled one back for Whitehill but Scott Smith made sure of the win with a fourth with five minutes left on the clock.

Burntisland Shipyard will have to try again this weekend after they drew 1-1 with Dalkeith Thistle at Recreation Park.

Shippy took an early lead through Ben Anthony after eight minutes but the visitors levelled thanks to a goal from Ross Aitchison.

Dundonald Bluebell are out after they lost 3-1 at home to Premier Division leaders Penicuik Athletic at Moorside Park, despite taking the lead through Ross Drummond after 10 minutes.

In the East of Scotland League Premier Division things had started to look up for John Mitchell’s Hill of Beath with two wins from their last three games but they slumped to a 4-2 defeat at Sauchie, with the Haws ending the game with nine men.

Brian Morgan opened the scoring for the home side in the first minute and doubled the advantage 10 minutes later.

Scott Davidson added a third for Sauchie after 26 minutes and they were firmly in the box seat.

Haws came out a lot brighter after the break and pulled a goal back through Paul Quinn and got themselves back into it with a second from Calum Adamson.

However, any comeback began to unravel on 64 minutes when Russell Grierson was shown a second yellow card and then on 83 minutes Lyle Kellican was shown a red card for a poor challenge.

The defeat sees the Haws drop into the bottom three after Lothian Thistle Hutchison vale won 3-1 at Camelon.

At the top of the table, Tranent joined Penicuik on 27 points, nine clear of Broxburn Athletic in third place, after a 1-0 win over Newtongrange.

In the First Division Conference A a keenly contested Fife derby at The Fleet Grounds ended in a 3-2 win for Rosyth over Kirkcaldy & Dysart.

Gregg Page put Rosyth in front and Chris Ireland equalised for Kirkcaldy.

Kirkcaldy looked to have won the game when Ryan McEwan scored with five minutes to go but Regan Lumsden equalised in the first minute of added time and instead of settling for a point Kyle Walls struck the winner two minutes later.

It was an incredible game at Clayton Caravan Park Recreation Park with defences very much lacking as new St Andrews manager Barry Cockburn got his first win as Saints won 6-4 over fellow strugglers Arniston Rangers

In Conference B Lochore Welfare looked to have thrown away three points at Edinburgh South but a stoppage-time winner from Pete Thomson saw the Fife side take all three points. Lochore’s Joe Kirkby also scored twice in the 3-2 win.

Two goals from Stephen Stark saw Lochgelly Albert’s resurgence continue as they lumped the pressure on beleaguered Newburgh with a 2-0 win at Purves Park.

Oakley United were dumped out of the Alex Jack Cup, losing 5-2 against Bo’ness Athletic at Newtown Park, while Luncarty made it through to the third round after they beat Edinburgh United 4-0 at Paties Road.

Glenrothes lost 5-0 to Conference A leaders Leith Athletic and Crossgates Primrose beat First Division Conference B contenders Kinnoull 4-0 at Tulloch Park.