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Bo'ness barely managed to maintain their long unbeaten record but suffered a setback to their league hopes on a nightmarish afternoon away to bottom club Bonnybridge. It took an Iain Ferguson equaliser with four minutes to play to rescue what could nevertheless be a precious point, after an absurd goal six minutes earlier had threatened to deny Bo'ness any reward from a hard afternoon's toil. Bonnybridge, near certainties for relegation, brought back memories of the BUs' horrid showing in a 3-0 cup defeat last season.
There were mitigating factors for Bo'ness' disappointing result. A quite awful playing surface all but eliminated the possibility of good football, and turned this into the scrappy game it undeniably was. The showing of the referee likewise was unimpressive to say the least, with no chance for the game to flow, or, it seemed, for any Bo'ness player to come into physical contact with an opponent. But ultimately, the most satisfactory explanation can only be a considerably sub-par performance from the majority of the team.
The signs were there as early as the first minute, when Bo'ness surrendered possession and the home side troubled them down the left flank, goalkeeper Neil Binnie being called into action before the contest was sixty seconds old. Bonnybridge looked the more alert and determined of the two sides in the early exchanges.
Bo'ness appeared to have a shout for a penalty kick after eight minutes when Gordon Herd went down under a challenge in the box, though the referee allowed play to continue. But Bo'ness, yet to forge a real opportunity of their own, were lucky to still be level after 13 minutes - after one Bonnybridge effort was kept out of the net by a defender on the goal line, their No.11 should have scored from eight yards with Binnie out of position, but blasted wastefully over the bar.
Bo'ness did, however, begin to come more into the game and create chances. Scott Love caused trouble down the right wing after quarter of an hour - his powerful low drive from an unlikely angle causing all sorts of difficulties, although goalkeeper and defender contrived between them to prevent the ball from going in. On 23 minutes came the closest attempt yet - Bo'ness winning a free kick for a foul on Martin Mooney out on the right, which was swung into the box for Graeme Donald to head the ball powerfully off the bar. The failure of the home team to adequately defend cross balls and set pieces would be a recurring theme.
The next chance, however, came two minutes after from a free kick for Bonnybridge deep in the Bo'ness half - another cross into the box, and this time No.8 getting his head on the ball, although Binnie made a comfortable enough save.
Events soon began to turn against Bo'ness. Chasing a ball down the right after half an hour, Herd pulled up with a hamstring injury - as he had done in January against Camelon in the Scottish - and had to leave the field. As the visiting support began to ponder the possibility of meeting Arthurlie in the quarter-finals of the Scottish without their top scorer, Bonnybridge did nothing to lift the gloom when they took the lead after 36 minutes. From a throw-in, the ball was flicked on into the box for a forward to run onto and sweep high past Binnie's right hand and into the net.
It was not an undeserved lead for the home team, who had worked hard and harried Bo'ness throughout. And they continued to harry in the following minutes, as a nervous Bo'ness defence made error after error - failing to clear their lines properly, misplaced passes and unconvincing tackles. A second goal was there for the taking, but the half-time whistle intervened on Bo'ness' behalf.
That blessed relief gave Brian Fairley the chance to instil some fighting spirit in his team, and Bo'ness returned for the second period a notably more determined side. But Bonnybridge nearly extended their lead two minutes into the second half. Following a dubious free kick award 25 yards out, their No.11 took a splendid free kick, curling the ball low around the wall but unluckily just wide of Binnie's right post.
The second half, though, belonged chiefly to Bo'ness, and with 50 minutes played they were level. A corner kick, poorly defended, fell to Greig Hodge - a half-time replacement for Love - at the far post, where he drilled the ball hard and low through a ruck of players and into the net.
Defensively, though, Bo'ness continued to look highly vulnerable, and they might have given a goal back within just two minutes of equalising. Gary Smith, having an abnormally abysmal day at right-back, gave the ball away in his own half, but a resulting cross from the left was headed too close to Binnie by the No.6.
From this point, though, Bo'ness increasingly controlled the contest, and certainly looked the more likely to score. Derek Yates came close on 65 minutes when from a corner kick he nearly scrambled in, but his attempt was blocked on the line by a defender. On 72 minutes, former Bo'ness 'keeper Greg Mitchell made an excellent stop from a Donald half-volley, after the latter had found himself in space on the left side of the penalty area.
There was a measure of injustice then (not to mention comedy) about the goal ten minutes from time which restored Bonnybridge's lead. And what a bizarre goal it was. In keeping with their chief method of attack for the second period, the ball was hit forward long and high - and hopeful - into the box, where David King and Neil Binnie decided to hold a conference over who should go for it. In the meantime, a slight brush off a forward's head diverted the path of the ball ever so slightly away from the goalkeeper, who was unable to react quickly enough to keep it out. Ludicrous.
What a dreadful way that would have been to lose any football game. However the BUs were, for all their flaws and follies on the day, just about worthy of a point, and they managed to secure one six minutes later. Fine work by Iain Ferguson down the right enabled him to swing a cross in which Hodge couldn't quite direct towards goal; but the ball was picked up again by Bo'ness, and from a second cross Donald headed, for the second time in the game, against the bar. This time, though, they got the break and, with Mitchell on the floor following his attempt to keep Donald's header out, Ferguson was on hand to straightforwardly nod the rebound into the goal.
Bo'ness pushed for the winner, but were unable to create any more clear opportunities, not helped by only three minutes of stoppage time - questionable given a lengthy stoppage for a head cut, substitutions and substantial general time wasting on the part of the home team.
Only the passage of the season will reveal whether these were two crucial squandered points, but the relatively good news from Whitburn of a 3-1 win for Sauchie in a pivotal league meeting between those two clubs at least ensured that the destination of the league title is now in Bo'ness' hands. In the meantime, United can just be relieved that they probably won't have to visit Bonnybridge next season.
Bo'ness United: Binnie; Smith, King, Todd, Yates, Muirhead (Wood), Love (Hodge), Mooney, Ferguson, Herd (Jeffrey), Donald.