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An odd game, this one. Two goals in the opening four minutes followed by a distinctly unsatisfying and uneventful hour and a bit, before the match burst to life after seventy minutes. Sauchie led three times, but each time were pegged back by a quick response from the BUs, before eventually scraping through on penalties. An improbably dramatic climax, then, but probably the right result.
Sauchie came into this game still sore from last week's elimination in the quarter finals of the Scottish, in which they were beaten by Glenrothes - a measure of revenge for the Fifers, then, after losing out to Sauchie in the final of this competition last year (and what a good final it was). This week it was the Clackmannanshire club looking for revenge, as their previous meeting with Bo'ness was the already legendary league decider defeat at Newtown Park eleven months previous. Sauchie scored very early on in that game, and they were only slightly slower in getting out of the traps here. Two minutes in, a corner kick on the left was driven in fiercely to the near post, where Billy Struthers got his head to the ball but only succeeded in directing it into the roof of his own net.
Bo'ness bounced back quickly, though. Just two minutes later they won a corner of their own, this one on the right, and Jamie Loney's cross was flicked on by Gary Smith before being met by Kevin Donnelly, nodding the ball in from inside the six yard box.
Spectators could at this juncture have been forgiven for anticipating an exciting, goal-filled ninety minutes.
It wasn't to be, however. Bo'ness for their part struggled in the middle of the park in the first period, with Struthers, David Muirhead and Martin Mooney failing to make a positive impact. There was little service for John Jeffrey and George O'Boyle up front. At least the back line was performing well enough, keeping Sauchie at bay. The home team were superior in the first half, but not wildly so, and were unable to carve out clear chances. They came closest on the half hour when a corner from the right was headed narrowly over by the No.4. Then two minutes later they managed another reasonable effort, No.8 given time to shoot from 25 yards, but his strike whistled wide right. Despite their unimpressive performance it was the BUs who had the best chance to add to the first half scoring, when Mooney found space to shoot on the left side of the penalty area - however, on his weaker foot, he dragged his shot wide across goal.
The opening twenty five minutes of the second half were a similar story, although the edge that Sauchie had in the first half was receding, with more of a balance to the play. The home team did have an opportunity of note on 55 minutes, though, when a long ball found Willie Irvine ten yards from goal, but his header was straight at Mark Cairns, making his first save of the game for Bo'ness.
It appeared that one goal would be enough to win this tie, and so Sauchie looked well placed to advance when they regained the lead with a somewhat freakish goal on 70 minutes. A speculative strike from 30 yards beat Cairns, hit the crossbar, and rebounded right to Sauchie's No.9 ten yards from goal, who reacted well to head in the game's third goal.
Four minutes later the result should have been put beyond doubt when, with Bo'ness pressing forward, Sauchie found themselves three men on one on the counter attack. Irvine, raiding down the left, slipped a low, square ball to the unmarked No.8, but ten yards from goal he scuffed his first time effort wide right.
Three minutes after that, Struthers nearly sold another goal to Sauchie, a miserable, mis-hit, well short back pass forcing Cairns to react quickly and just beat Irvine to the loose ball. Following that escape, the BUs moved right up the park, Mooney taking possession on the right flank and playing a low cut back to O'Boyle just inside the box for the forward to shoot across goal and into the goalkeeper's bottom right corner, levelling the score at 2-2.
Their lead may have been cancelled out for a second time, but Sauchie evidently still believed, and pushed for a winner in the last thirteen minutes of normal time, a couple of balls into the Bo'ness penalty area nervously, but effectively, defended. The visitors looked to be hanging on for extra time, yet it was they who had the best chances to win this game in the latter stages. On 82 minutes substitute Jamie Winning turned his man well in the box, but could only drill his shot across the face of the goal. And in the ninetieth minute a lobbed pass from Donnelly found Jeffrey on the right wing, from where his cross picked up Winning wide open at the far post - but the young forward headed wide back across goal.
So to extra time. After an explosive end to the ninety minutes the game appeared in danger of petering out, again, in the first extra period, the only incident worth recording being a narrowly wide strike from Sauchie on the hundred minute mark. But the second half provided much more in the way of drama, and with 106 minutes played the home side should have been in front again when John Burrows, without any defensive cover, lost out in a tussle for a long ball. A pass over to the unmarked No.14 on the right flank for Sauchie forced the forward slightly wide, but he drove into the box and slid a simple ball inside for the No.9. With the goal gaping he surely had to score, but somehow pushed the ball wide of the far post.
The home support were ready to forgive and forget, though, when Sauchie moved ahead again, 3-2, five minutes later - a cross from the bye line on the right met by No.7's diving header from eight yards which tucked neatly inside Cairns' left post.
Incredibly enough, Bo'ness again responded within a matter of minutes. On 114 minutes, Dale Ryan's cross from the left was headed down in the box by Winning into the path of Donnelly, who just managed to beat the goalkeeper to the loose ball and poke it into the net for 3-3.
Bo'ness might even have sneaked it in the dying moments, two late corner kicks only just being scrambled off the line by the home defence. That would have been harsh on Sauchie, however, and they survived those scares to ensure the tie was settled by penalties.
And it was settled in Sauchie's favour. Winning converted the first penalty for Bo'ness, giving them their first lead of the game, but it was a brief one. All of the home team's penalties were comfortable despatched, with Chris Dolan and Dougie Todd having their second and third penalties for the BUs saved before Mooney struck home the fourth, ultimately meaningless, one.
Bo'ness United: Cairns; Smith, Loney, Todd, Burrows, Muirhead (Winning), Struthers, Donnelly, Jeffrey (Dolan), O'Boyle (Ryan), Mooney.