Whitburn win on return to junior action

Apr 15 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

WHITBURN scraped into the quarter-finals of the East of Scotland Cup after almost throwing away a two-goal lead against lower-league Sauchie, who should have taken the game into a penalty shoot-out in the dying minutes of the match.

Scott Murphy had fired the home side into an early lead and they looked to have sealed the win when Kevin Donnelly struck a minute into the second half.

But Whitburn where made to pay for their complacency on 75 minutes when Sauchie’s Kristopher Myles capitalised on some slack play by the home defence to race in on goal and blast the ball past the helpless Stewart Walker in the Whitburn goal.

Colin Strickland had the chance from the spot to restored Whitburn’s two-goal lead but Sauchie stopper David Hardie saved superbly.

That miss set up a nervy finale as Whitburn held on while Sauchie pushed for the equaliser that would have forced a penalty shoot-out.

And they should have done so when Myles was presented with a great chance to score late on, only to be denied by Walker and Whitburn breathed a sigh of relief when the final whistle eventually sounded.

ANDY McQUILLAN came to the four for Blackburn last weekend as he put Edinburgh to the sword.

The striker helped himself to a hat-trick before Edinburgh pulled goals back through Conan McDiarmid and sub Craig Edgar.

McQuillan added a fourth just before the end to make sure the points stayed at Murrayfield Park.

PUMPHERSTON’S Kevin Westwater was the hero of the hour as his side edged out local rivals Livingston at the weekend.

Gary Frater’s strike had Livingston leading at the interval but substitute Barry Wales levelled for Pumphy shortly after restart.

Then Westwater popped up to fire the goal which turned out to be the winner, although Ross Muir should have made it more comfortable for Pumpherston when he had the chance to scored from the spot, only to fail to convert from 12 yards.

BROXBURN kept their title bid on track with a comfortable win over South Division strugglers Stoneyburn.

Sean Martin’s strike put Broxburn into the lead before a Johnny Wilson double had the home side on easy street but Barry Pritchard pulled a goal back from the penalty spot just before the break to given Stoneyburn a lifeline in the match.

But any hopes the visitors had of making a comeback ended when Stuart Ritchie found the space to fire Broxburn into a commanding 4-1 lead shortly after the half-time interval.

A Pritchard late spot-kick gave Stoneyburn another consolation goal but Broxburn were worthy winners on the day.

Elsewhere, Harthill Royal moved up the table with a 2-0 win over Haddington.