LINLITHGOW Rose won the battle of West Lothian’s Superleague heavyweights at a canter on Saturday leaving Bathgate boss Graeme Love bemoaning his sides’ sloppy start.Rose had the Jags rocking on their feet and reeling on the ropes with a quick one-two in the opening three minutes after quickfire goals from Chris King and Stuart McArthur.It could have been even worse for a Bathgate side who were struggling to halt an almost incessant wave of Rose attacks.On another day they would have been on the wrong end of a five-goal first-half whipping.But although Love holds his hands up and confesses Linlithgow were too good on the day he insists he is happy to have taken three points from what he believes will be two of his sides’ toughest league matches ALL season.He explained: “Absolutely it was our start which cost us.“We lost two bad goals which was disappointing as we had looked solid the previous Saturday at Bo’ness playing with the same side and personnel.“It was a disappointing defeat but we’ll come back from it. We have a strong bunch of guys and we’ll take it on chin as we know we can do a lot better – we only have to look back a week to prove that.“Linlithgow didn’t have to work hard for thier goals.“One of the most unfortunate things about the game was losing a goal so quickly after we got back into the match at 2-1.“Had we held out for 10 or 15 minutes then that would have put them under pressure.“Linlithgow did have a few more chances to add to the score but that was partly because I was pushing guys forward to try and get something from the game.“It’s not in my nature to sit back and accept a defeat like that and I’d rather push people on to try and snatch something.“But at the end of the day we’ve now played Linlithgow Rose and Bo’ness away from home and we have three points on the board.“And if someone had offered me that I’d probably have been happy with it.”After King and McArthur had netted the Jags pulled a goal back following a Gary McCulloch stunner 12 minutes after the restart but moments later some more kamikaze defending at the back for Bathgate gifted Tommy Coyne a goal to restore Roses’ two-goal advantage.King got back in on the goalscoring act, notching his ninth in the past seven games, to fire the hosts 4-1 up before Stephen Payne’s header pulled another back for the Jags.Bathgate striker Lee Johnstone limped off before the end with Love admitting concerns his new signing may have suffered ankle ligament damage.His mood was in stark contrast to jubilant Rose gaffer Dave Baikie who was obviously thrilled with his side’s display.He said: “Without being disrespectful to Bathgate, we didn't want half-time to come. We were so dominant we thought we should score every time we went upfield. “OK, we missed a lot of chances, but somewhere along the way that tide will turn in that respect and goals will start flowing again.”Read
