Rose suffer at the death in Bo’ness
Sean O’Neil Linlithgow Rose’s poor season continued as they went down to two late goals to rivals Bo’ness United, leaving them in a relegation fight.
Bo’ness made the brighter start in the derby without really testing Darren Hill in the Rose goal.
Some slack defending from Rose almost gave United a half chance after 10 minutes, but Keast failed to capitalise before Ruari MacLennan had a drive blocked. Bo’ness continued to press and could have got the opened after 25 minutes if it wasn’t for a brilliant save by Hill. Rose’s goalkeeper reacted brilliantly to keep out a Will Snowdon shot from a Bo’ness corner.
United piled forward, creating more half-chances, as Marty Wright found the side netting and then Colin Strickland pulled a shot wide.
Despite spending most of the game on the back foot Rose nearly found themselves ahead after half an hour.
Completely against the run of play a Reece Donaldson cross found Tommy Coyne at the back post and his fierce volley forced an excellent save from Andy Murphy in the Bo’ness goal. Just before the interval Jack Beaumont had a free kick saved as the teams went in level at the break.
Linlithgow nearly broke the deadlock immediately after the restart as Colin Leiper header was pushed onto the bar by Murphy.
The game then slowed down as both teams gave away sloppy possession before United sub Roddy MacLennan shot over just after the hour mark.
United had a penalty shout turned down after 70 minutes as the game petered out towards a draw.
All that changed though going into the final minute as a late double from super-sub Roddy MacLennan broke Rose hearts. The first came from a corner that was headed down by Ross Campbell and met by MacLennan who fired the ball off the crossbar - with the referee adjudging that it had also crossed the line.
The second goal was a lot more definite and sealed the points for Bo’ness on their home turf.
If MacLennan’s first was slightly dubious his second was a piece of brilliance as he curled the ball high into the top corner after skillful build up play from Conor Scullion.
The result left Rose second from bottom and badly needing to pick up points from Wednesday nights game against Musselburgh.