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Whitburn claimed third place in Bathgate's pre-season friendly tournament, inflicting a second defeat in two days on Bo'ness - an inauspicious start to the season and Jimmy Sandison's tenure as manager. As in the previous day's loss to Bathgate, again Bo'ness wilted in the second half, this time letting slip a half-time lead gained through a Graeme Donald penalty kick.
This was an intermittently interesting game, though never a gripping one. The first half had in its favour a reasonable parity between the sides, both creating a handful of chances or half-chances, though it was Bo'ness who were able to convert. After heading a free kick narrowly wide on eight minutes, Donald - a scorer against Bathgate in the semi-final - made it 1-0 with a well-placed penalty kick five minutes later, the spot-kick awarded after a defender's hand had apparently blocked a Dean McPherson cut back from the bye line. Bo'ness continued to look sightly more likely to score after this, and half-way through the first period their tall No.10 might have doubled the lead, but miscued his shot badly after being played through by a fine pass from Martin Mooney.
Whitburn had been restricted to a couple of reasonable but unexceptional shots from range in the opening thirty minutes, but began to pose more of a threat as the interval approached. With 37 minutes on the clock, their No.8 rose well to meet a free kick crossed into the area, but from 12 yards his headed effort clipped the bar on its way over. Six minutes later, and the woodwork was again denying Whitburn, this time a fabulously struck 25 yard free kick from the No.7 smacking the bar before bouncing over for a goal kick. Cairn in the Bo'ness goal hadn't a prayer.
Two minutes into the second period, Whitburn were rewarded for their endeavour with an equaliser from former Bo'ness forward Colin Campbell. The veteran's run took him across his marker to meet a cross from the right, which he met well to head in from ten yards.
The Whitburn revival continued ten minutes later with a second goal. Campbell was again at the centre of it, stealing in at the near post to meet a corner kick - he was unforunate to see his header deflect off a post, but it bounced back to the far post where the No.8 was waiting, unmarked, to sweep the rebound in.
A corner at the other end nearly produced an equaliser on 64 minutes. After some disorganised defending, the ball broke to Martin ten yards out, but his attempt was blocked by a defender on the line. The chance, after a poor start to the second half, might have given the BUs hope, but this only lasted sixty seconds before Gordon Abbott was ordered off in a curious incident. Apparently the victim of a foul, the referee showed the forward the red card after a very minor tangle. There appeared to be no violent reaction, nor did the Whitburn players show any sign of outrage at a transgression on Abbott's part. Baffling, at least from the point of view of the terraces. And doubly sore for Bo'ness, suffering at the hands of an inconsistent approach to discipline in the tournament - had Bathgate been absolutely correctly reduced to ten men after half an hour in Saturday's game, Bo'ness might not even have been playing in this third place match.
But them's the breaks. Bo'ness duly slid even further out of contention in this game, and Whitburn effectively wrapped up the win on 71 minutes with their third, a swift move down the left, a low cut back from the goal line, and a comfortable finish from eight yards. All too easy, the Bo'ness defence looking as vulnerable as against Bathgate, and now with fatigue to add to their problems.
Bo'ness hardly looked like scoring themselves, an attacker down, low on inspiration, and most of the team looking like they'd given up hope with the third goal. Whitburn might have added another one seven minutes from the end, but their No.10, after a storming run down the right, drove his shot wide across goal from a dangerous position.
Fourth out of four, six goals against and two second half collapses - not the most encouraging weekend ahead of the new season, then. But then, "they're only friendlies" - the hope for Bo'ness is that Sandison has learned something about his new players and his squad in general.