Off-colour Whitburn fail in quest for final

Jun 11 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

Off-colour Burnie fail in quest for final

MJM Flooring Cup Semi Final Musselburgh 2 Whitburn 0

WHITBURN were sent spinning out of the MJM Cup at the semi-final stage on Tuesday night after a disappointing display in East Lothian.

The county club were away to Musselburgh but were second best as they fell to a 2-0 defeat and lost out on a cup-final clash with local rivals Linlithgow Rose.

Musselburgh started the game strongly and forced the Burnie onto the back foot straight from the off. The game was barely five minutes old when they were awarded a penalty which was excellently executed by Paul Currie.

They continued to dominate the Burnie for the remainder of the opening half but a string of glaring misses accompanied by a couple of good saves from Stewart Walker kept the deficit to just a single goal by the break.

Whitburn boss Derek Strickland must have torn strips of his Super League stars in the dressing room as they came out for the second 45 a team reborn.

Musselburgh continued to create and ultimately miss the better chances but overall the balance of the game was now more even.

But the hosts finally sealed the game three minutes from the end which a goal which left the visiting fans raging.

A long punt upfield sent Paul Tansey scampering in on goal but he looked to everyone in the ground to be at least four yards offside.

However the only opinion that matters is that of the man in the middle and the referee waved play on and the Musselburgh man converted to book a cup-final spot and dash any chance Whitburn had of taking the game to penalties.

So this Friday Musselburgh will meet Linlithgow Rose for the right to have the first winners’ name ever engraved on Junior footballs newest trophy – the MJM Flooring Cup. The match is at the home of Bonnyrigg Rose and kicks off at 7.30pm.

Linlithgow Rose already have the Fife and Lothians Cup on the Prestonfield sideboard and new manager Dave Baikie has his eye on a double just a few weeks after sweeping into power.

But Linlithgow will count themselves more than a little fortunate to be in the final after scraping through in the last round after a nerve shredding penalty shootout against Penicuik.

They will find Musselburgh a handful with ex-Linlithgow player Davy McGlynn in charge.

The former Rose favourite has some very exciting players in his squad and they be a force to be reckoned with in the Super League next season having won the Premier League in some style this year.

This is the final game of the season for both clubs so they will be on a high trying to win silverware again.