Third time unlucky for county side

Dec 18 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

Third time unlucky for county side

BLACKBURN’S Scottish junior Cup adventure ended this weekend as they lost 1-0 to Lanark at Murrayfield Park.

It was a case of third time unlucky for Blackburn as the fixture finally got the green light after the frosty winter saw the game postponed twice.

The West Lothian side made just one change from the one which started against Bathgate Thistle three weeks ago with Francis Carlin replacing Michael Tugman in goal.

And Carlin was quickly called into action as their opponents made a bright start to the match.

He made a couple of smart early stops to deny the visitors an early breakthrough.

But the first real chance of the match, however, fell to the hosts when they were awarded a penalty after David Fowler was fouled in the box.

Peter Lynch placed the ball on the spot but his well struck effort was brilliantly clawed away by Brown in the Lanark goal and a golden chance to take the lead was lost for the county side.

Blackburn were left to rue this missed chance when Lanark took the lead ten minutes before the break.

An inswinging corner from Hanlon was only partially cleared by Carlin and hooked home by Stark for the lead.

The home keeper kept his side in it just before the break when he acrobatically denied Downs from close range.

Carlin was in inspired form and carried on after the break, deflecting, blocking and fingertipping efforts away from his goal.

It was all Lanark at this stage and they were given the chance to seal the tie after 69 minutes when they were awarded a penalty.

But as had happened at the other end the spotkick was expertly saved with Carlin diving at full stretch to keep out Cuthill’s effort.

In the end it wasn’t enough to keep Blackburn in the Scottish Cup hunt and they must regroup for their league battle with their interest in the cup over for another year.

Blackburn United: Carlin, Murray, Miller, Spence, Grieve, Fowler (Sneddon), Stewart (Williamson), Brown, Lynch, McQuillan, Rintoul (Kei). Subs not used: Gilhouley, Baxter, Tugman