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Bo'ness forced a Newtown Park replay and kept their Scottish dream alive with this draw at third-placed Fife side Lochore - but only just. Paul McKinlay headed in a Derek Yates flick-on from a corner at the far post with just five minutes remaining to keep the BUs in the Cup with his second goal of the contest. Gary Smith may even have grabbed a late winner, but saw his volley - again from a corner - go wide.
The match had also started in exciting fashion. Alan Ward nearly put the visitors in front after eight minutes when he skilfully turned a defender but was denied by a fine block by the goalkeeper. But Lochore were doing most of the early attacking, with their tall team posing a considerable threat from set-pieces. Only a magnificent save from Neil Binnie, diving acrobatically to his left, kept Bo'ness level when a Lochore header appeared net-bound, and then a poor defensive clearance from another corner allowed a long-range effort from Welfare which blazed just wide of Binnie's post.
Then after 20 minutes, and undoubtedly against the run of play, McKinlay scored his first of the afternoon. Running onto a through ball, he seemed not to have the pace to stay clear of his man, but instead turned inside on his left foot at the edge of the box before brilliantly curling the ball over the advancing goalkeeper and into the top corner.
The BUs were a much improved side after their goal, and saw two reasonable penalty claims waved away by the referee. Then, when it seemed they would go in at half time with the lead, Lochore struck from a corner two minutes into injury time, as they had been threatening to all game.
A quick boost was received after the restart, however, when Allison was ordered off on 47 minutes for his second yellow card offence. He can have had no complaints, crudely bringing down Darryl Drew as the Bo'ness midfielder charged past him.
Not that the man advantage appeared to do Bo'ness any favours. Welfare's defence, now withdrawing somewhat, were rarely prised open by a Bo'ness forward line looking decidedly uninspired. Not that Lochore themselves looked like scoring, with their corner count dramatically down in the second half, but then with twenty minutes remaining a disorganised visiting defence was breached down the right wing, and the low ball across the six yard box was turned in to put the numerically-disdvantaged club 2-1 ahead.
And it could have been more. Just minutes later, scrappy defending saw Brian Kemp hit a clearance against a forward, who ran clear through with a chance to kill the tie before Yates made a wonderful recovery tackle.
Bo'ness struggled to create and appeared on their way out before the late dramatics secured at least a stay of execution. An acceptable result on the road, but the BUs will look for a better performance in the rematch.
Bo'ness: Binnie; Smith, King (Sludden), Ryan (Hodge), Yates, Kemp, K Inglis, Drew, McKinlay, Ward, Loney (Black).
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