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There wasn't much to get excited about in Fife as a below-par Bo'ness edged a little closer to safety in this away fixture against Kelty, taking the lead through Jamie Winning before a bizarre Dougie Todd own goal cancelled out that strike and left us with a final score of 1-1 on a miserable, rainy afternoon.
The BUs started reasonably well and were in front after thirteen minutes when a low pass from Todd, out on the left flank, found Winning in space in the box. The young striker took advantage of the slack marking, taking a touch before planting the ball into the net to the goalkeeper's right.
Bo'ness looked ever so slightly more likely to score the next goal, but in truth there was little between these sides throughout the first half, and with no real inspiration on show, chances were at a premium - the most probable path to the game's second goal was through a ghastly error. So it proved on 37 minutes when a hopeful high, long ball forward from the Kelty midfield appeared set to be easily tidied up at the back. Bo'ness goalkeeper Mark Cairns came off his line to claim, only for Todd to hear the shout too late and send a looping back header over his own 'keeper and into the net.
It was just about Kelty's best attacking move of the game up to that point, but boosted by the equaliser they created a couple of half chances in the remainder of the half. Two minutes after the goal, a corner kick led to a shooting opportunity for No.7 on the edge of the box, but his week shot was easily saved by Cairns. And another couple of minutes later, a cut back from the bye line led to Kelty's No.11 scooping a close range volley over the crossbar.
Kelty went on to edge the second half but continued to lack spark going forward, and it was the visitors who had the best chance to move 2-1 ahead when Kevin Donnelly picked out Winning at the near post with his cross from the right, but the latter, having scored once already, headed an excellent chance over from eight yards out.
Kelty had a good headed opportunity of their own on 75 minutes when a free kick into the box was met by a forward's head, stealing in at the near post, but he too headed over. A minute later Winning was causing concern to the home defence again, this time just unable to turn substitute Dale Ryan's cross from the right flank on target - under pressure from the goalkeeper he flashed his header across goal. And the match was threatening to build to a thrilling climax when, after just one more minute, Cairns produced a smart save to keep Bo'ness level, diving to his right to push away a low strike from eighteen yards.
But those three minutes of action were followed by another thirteen which was much like the rest of the game, lacking in a great deal of fluency or excitement and, yes, these looked for the most part like two teams in the lower half of the table. Still, for Bo'ness, their outside chances of the title now certainly gone, it was at least a draw which stops them slipping down the league table.
Bo'ness United: Cairns; Smith, Loney, Todd [capt], Burrows (Ellis), Muirhead, Struthers (Ryan), Donnelly, Jeffrey (No.15), Mooney, Winning.