Linlithgow come to the four to book Scottish Junior Cup final place

Apr 22 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

TOMMY COYNE proved he was as clinical in the box as his old man after slamming home a deadly double to fire Linlithgow Rose into the Scottish Junior Cup final.

The 23-year-old son of the former Celtic and Republic of Ireland striker netted twice and took home the man-of -the-match award as 10-man Rose romped to a 4-1 semi-final second-leg win over Lochee United.

Linlithgow will now meet Largs Thistle in the final on May 23 and Coyne admitted it was a dream come true for him.

He said: “My dad scored so many important goals in his time at Motherwell and Celtic and he’s delighted with what I’m doing now.

“This is my first full season in Junior football and I’m so happy to be here. I’ve managed to get into the Junior International set-up and I’m delighted to be in the Scottish Cup Final.”

Rose made the final of Junior football’s top prize the hard way.

Already trailing 1-0 from the first-leg, they fell further behind when Paul Blackwood scored on 20 minutes.

The West Lothian club continued to surge forward in search of a way back into the match and they were handed a lifeline just before the break from the spot.

Coyne stepped up and kept his nerve to fire Rose back into the match.

It got even better for the home side when Gordon Herd blasted them level on aggregate just after the interval but they suffered a major blow when John Adam was sent off for a 70th-minute tackle on Phil Hagan.

Lochee almost scored an immediate reply against the ten men when Craig Robertson and Hagan both rattled the woodwork.

The spectre of penalties was looming large over Prestonfield until the depleted West Lothian side dug deep in the final 10-minutes.

Coyne edged the hosts ahead five minutes from the end before Stephen Manson scored the fourth after finishing off following a 70-yard run.

Rose boss Dave Baikie admitted the penalty just before the break was the turning point in the tie.

He said: “We played well and I felt we thoroughly deserved to get to the final. The players deserve enormous credit for the way they played and it was a night-and-day from last week.

“We missed four glorious opportunities to score before Lochee went up the park and took the lead.

“But then we won a penalty just before half-time, which was the turning point. Scoring that gave us the believe we could go on and have a good second half, which we did.

“At half time, I also reminded the players that a couple of weeks ago we were in Lochee on Super League business and trailing by a goal with 10 minutes to go.

“We scored three times in that 10 minutes, so I said we had 45 minutes this time to score three goals and they showed tremendous character to do that, especially being a man down.

“It was a terrific game and real end-to-end stuff and we managed to score again after the break before we then lost a man to a red card.

“At that time, we rode our luck a wee bit as Lochee hit the bar before we managed to score twice late on in the match.”

Baikie also revealed the club may launch an appeal in a bid to have Adam’s red card overturned in a bid to save his Final dream.

He added: “I feel for John as there was no malice in the tackle.

“I don’t know if we will be appealing the sending off yet as any appeal will be heard before the Final and may well be fruitless.

“I don’t know a lot about Largs Thistle but they must be a decent side to have reached the Final.”

LINLITHGOW: Pinkowski, Donnelly, Virgili, Ward, Wilson, Smith, Tyrrell, Adam, Herd (Manson), Coyne, McLennan (McArthur). Subs: McMenamin, Flannery, Livingstone, Bradley, McPherson.