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Strange to think that three months ago these teams served up a nine goal thriller at Fauldhouse in a supremely entertaining league game. By considerable contrast, this was a largely lifeless affair, but a makeshift Bo'ness team - without Smith and Yates at the back, and Ferguson and Herd up front - still did enough to secure a narrow victory, and give coach Brian Fairley a victorious send off on his way to Dumbarton. It would be fair to say that Bo'ness barely made a real chance all day, but with the threat from the visitors minimised for the most part, John Jeffrey's slightly odd first half goal proved to be sufficient.
Fauldhouse were first to threaten in the opening minutes, but after a scramble in the Bo'ness penalty area were unable to get off a shot to trouble goalkeeper Neil Binnie. With 8 minutes played, some good work by Scott Love gave Martin Mooney the chance to shoot from the edge of the Fauldhouse box, but his shot was well blocked. Shortly afterwards, a ball across the edge of the Bo'ness box was struck low for Binnie's bottom right hand corner, but ran wide of the target.
Nothing more than half chances, then, in the subdued opening 27 minutes. The contest then threatened to burst to life towards the end of the first half. On 27 minutes, Fauldhouse's troublesome No.9 outpaced Greig Hodge (drafted in at right back in Smith's absence), and turned towards goal on the left of the penalty area. Binnie, however, was alert to the danger, closed down the angle and made a good block. A minute later, Fauldhouse had the ball in the net following a free kick, but the whistle had already been blown for offside.
The threat from Fauldhouse was rapidly increasing, and this was again emphasised after 33 minutes when their No.9 battled his way past Dougie Todd in a one-on-one situation to go through on goal, but he shot wastefully over from 18 yards.
Two minutes later Bo'ness had a goal of their own chopped off for offside, as they began to claw their way back into the game. On 39 minutes they produced their best effort yet - Love raiding down the right and playing a low, hard ball across where Jeffrey got a slight touch at the near post, but the goalkeeper made a smart stop on the line.
Jeffrey was not to be denied for long, however. A minute later, a free kick in the Bo'ness half was played long to the edge of the box, where Jeffrey was first to make contact with the ball. The touch off his boot looped the ball over the goalkeeper, who had come off his line, and it dropped into the net to open the scoring.
Relative excitement, then, in the latter stages of the first half, but the game soon returned to its former drab state in the second half. The home team worked well enough all half, but failed to forge opportunities. Fauldhouse, of course, were the team needing the goal, but hardly looked likely to equalise. They did have a couple of threatening moments - No.9 cutting in from the right with a tricky little run, but his shooting angle was never the easiest and he fired wide. With thirteen minutes to the same player found space to shoot at the edge of the box, but his curling left foot effort sailed comfortably enough over the bar.
In between those isolated chances, Fauldhouse had their prospects dealt a serious blow by the dismissal of their No.11 on 74 minutes. A silly offence really - after a tussle with Hodge at the sideline which had resulted in a Bo'ness throw-in, the Fauldhouse player threw the ball at his adversary from a couple of yards. It was indeed as trivial as that short description suggests - the red card was undoubtedly very harsh, though its severity didn't bother the home team much. Amusing to hear the visiting fans accuse the referee of being "a homer" - he had earlier this season taken charge of a controversial Bo'ness-Fauldhouse league game at Newtown, in which two Bo'ness players and the manager were ordered off in a 3-0 defeat.
The advantage of the spare man assisted Bo'ness in their bid to kill off the game, and after a brief flurry of Fauldhouse pressure following the red card, most of the rest of the game was played out in the visitors' half, as the BUs eased their way into the next round. Another victory, then, but this one won't live long in the memory.
Bo'ness United: Binnie; Hodge, King, Todd, Donald, Muirhead, Love, Mooney, Ryan, Jeffrey, Wood (Kemp).