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Chance being a curious thing, this year's Scottish Junior Cup fourth round draw had paired Bo'ness with Camelon at Newtown Park, an exact repeat of last year's draw. On that earlier occasion, the BUs had exited the competition after a replay at Carmuirs Park. This year, they came into the fixture on the back of an excellent run - unbeaten since October - but concerned that the four week winter lay off would disrupt their momentum. Such concerns proved unfounded. If this was not a classic performance from Bo'ness, they did enough to deserve a 2-0 win against a Camelon side playing a man down for much of the contest.
It was a lively first half in front of Newtown's biggest crowd of the season so far (close to a thousand). Martin Mooney shot just wide of the post for Bo'ness in the opening ten minutes. Then the BUs' new addition up front, Ian Ferguson, beat the Camelon goalkeeper to a ball inside the box, but was unable to find David Muirhead with his cutback. Camelon themselves might have scored inside the first fifteen minutes but, after a ball was flicked on from a corner kick, ex-BU Paul McKinlay was unable to direct it into the net with his diving header, the ball instead brushing off his head and going wide.
With a little over quarter of an hour played, Bo'ness took the lead. After David Wood had seen an effort deflected wide, the resultant corner kick was flighted to the far post and headed back across by Herd for Ferguson to stab in from six yards. A nice way to mark his debut.
Camelon, however, nearly equalised immediately - a swift move up the right flank gave No.8 a good shooting opportunity inside the box, but his effort was brilliantly palmed away by Binnie, diving to his right.
But in the main, it was the home team who looked more likely to score again. They spurned a good opportunity when Wood opted to have a shot himself from 25 yards, rather than lay the ball off to his right to the wide open Graeme Donald.
Then with just under ten minutes to go in the first half, Camelon's No.5 was ordered off for two bookable offences in the space of a few seconds - first a bad tackle, and then involvement in a resulting altercation. The free kick was played into the box, where Muirhead received the ball 16 yards out and, under pressure but with the aid of a bobble, was able to squeeze an effort just inside the post with the goalkeeper at full stretch to make the score 2-0.
Two goals and a man up, they might have put the game out of sight just two minutes later. Wood, causing all sorts of problems for the Camelon defence down the left wing, picked out Scott Love - on for the injured Gordon Herd, who had been withdrawn after half an hour - whose volley from 12 yards flew over the crossbar.
Camelon came more into the game in the closing minutes of the half as they looked to give themselves a boost before the interval, but they were unable to make a clear chance, and No.8 fired wide from 25 yards with their best shooting opportunity.
Even with ten men, Camelon - with two half-time substitutions - looked an improved team in the second period. However, clear chances were still few and far between. Bo'ness looked the more likely to add to the scoring, but were unable to take advantage of a succession of chances and half chances. Camelon were somehow able to scramble clear from one dangerous low pass across the face of the goal, the ball appearing to rebound off Ferguson's heel. Love had numerous opportunities to do damage out on the right, but looked short of match fitness, and failed to find either the finish or the final ball which would surely have put the game out of the visitors' reach. The home team came closest to extending their lead after 69 minutes, when Wood somehow hit the bar from six yards out.
But the second half was chiefly, for Bo'ness, a matter of holding onto their lead and seeing themselves safely through to the next round. Camelon threatened rarely - the odd set piece, a hopeful shout for a penalty against Gary Smith for handball during a scramble in the box - but had their best chance in the later stages of the game when some slack passing at the back allowed Camelon to play through their No.16, though his shot was superbly blocked by Binnie as the goalkeeper closed him down. The second half was not pretty - and not helped by a multitude of free kick awards for next to nothing - but Bo'ness achieved their aim of snuffing out any hopes of a Camelon fight-back.
It was not, however, a quiet finish to the game. In stoppage time, minutes after Smith had come close for Bo'ness, heading just over from a corner, substitute Dale Ryan was sent clear by Ferguson's well judged pass. Camelon's goalkeeper making the odd decision to rush thirty yards out of his goal, Ryan took the ball past him, only to be deliberately tripped. Straight red card? Why, of course. To Ryan - for a retaliatory foul on the goalkeeper brought to the referee's attention by his assistant. The goalkeeper escaped with only a yellow card as the man in black demonstrated his sense of humour, thus allowing Camelon to benefit from the most blatant of goal-denying professional fouls.
This was merely an unpleasant postscript to the game, however. More importantly, Bo'ness avenged last year's fourth round defeat at Camelon and advance to the last sixteen of the Scottish - their best run in many years.
Bo'ness United: Binnie; Smith, King, Todd, Yates [capt], Muirhead, Donald (Ryan), Mooney (Hodge), Ferguson, Herd (Love), Wood.