Broxburn Athletic 4 Blackburn United 2
Ross 1, 26, Grant 53, Kelly 69 Smith 12, Drummond 34
The third away game on the trot saw a trip to Albyn Park for the first West Lothian derby of the season.
It didn’t take long for the goals to start flying in, 18 seconds to be exact as straight from kick-off, Broxburn pushed forward and a through ball found Cameron Ross running clear to fire the ball past Gavin King.
Despite this early set-back, Blackburn were finding space in the Broxburn rear guard and from a Danny Campbell cross, Laurie Devine’s header slid agonisingly past. Then on ten minutes Broxburn were reduced to 10 mean when Marley Redfern collected the ball and drove at the defence, he slid the ball into Campbell who was pulled down on the edge of the area by Jordan Wright who was shown the red card. The free kick was blocked away for a corner, and from the corner Campbell headed wide.
However the equaliser was only delayed by a minute when Laurie Devine found space on the right, his cross into the box was cleared to Marc Smith who fired high into the net. Moment later Campbell had a half chance to notch a second but dragged his shot wide of the mark.
Broxburn re-grouped and on 26 minutes won a corner, which was taken short to Liam Ireland just inside the box and he seemed to go down easily under a challenge by John Drummond and a spot kick was awarded, which Ross converted.
It took only 8 minutes for Blackburn to level the scores once again. A MacLeod free-kick was flicked-on by Campbell at the near post, the ball rebounded off the far post and John Drummond was on hand to stab the ball home.
The second half stated more quietly than the first, and it was Marc Smith who dragged an effort well wide for the first chance. However, on 53 minutes Broxburn re-took the lead. A free kick from Jack Beesley on the right found Andrew Grant in acres of space inside the area to fire home.
Blackburn rallied on the hour mark and firstly Mildren headed just over from a MacLeod corner, and then an attempt from Kane sailed over. However at this point the 10 men of Broxburn were more than holding their own and extended their lead with 20 minutes remaining when, from a quickly taken free-kick, Conor Kelly with literally his first touch of the ball since coming off the bench, slotted home to catch the visiting defence cold.
The game petered out somewhat with Broxburn happy to soak up any pressure from Blackburn. A David Howe shot was deflected to Redfern and his dinked attempt over the keeper crept over the bar, then Campbell tried with a curling shot which went the wrong side of the far post.
In injury time there was time for Broxburn to almost add to their lead and Ross to grab a hattrick, but his free kick was tipped over by King.
Broxburn Athletic: Connor Wallace, Luke Murray, Greg Redmond, Andrew Grant, Jordan Wright, Greg Nicol, David Greenhill, Thomas Cowley (Andrew Gillen 87), Gary Brass (Conor Kelly 68), Liam Ireland (Jack Beesley 45), Cameron Ross. Unused subs: Greg Binnie, Jordan Hopkinson, Craig Turnbull, Shaun Donoghue.
Blackburn United: Gavin King, James Mildren, John Drummond, Martin Lawrie (Jordan Devine 75), Michael Browne, Dominic Kane, Marc Smith (David Howe 75), Stuart MacLeod, Laurie Devine (Justin Watson 75), Danny Campbell, Marley Redfern. Unused subs: Finlay Anderson, Kieran Swanson, Ryan Kidd.
Referee: Alastair Grieve Assistants: Danny MacKinnon, Kieran Kennedy.