Recap

Saturday 14th November 2020 – East of Scotland Premier League

Blackburn United 2 Linlithgow Rose 3
Swanson 21, Devine 82 Boubekri 31, Cairns 52, Brownlie 58

The game burst into life on the 11 minute mark when Marley Redfern ran at the Linlithgow defence and slid the ball through to Kieran Swanson who was hauled down on the edge of the area with referee Chris McNab only flashing a yellow towards the visiting defender. At the other end Ruari Maclennan had a shot tipped round the post by Gavin King and from the resulting corner a Ewan Moyes header was cleared off the line by Martin Lawrie.

On the 20 minute mark Blackburn nearly took the lead when from a short throw-in, James Mildren helped the ball into the box and it fell to Redfern who’s shot hit the post and bounced to safety. However the opener was only delayed by a minute when it was Redfern again who carried the ball forward and shuttled it out wide to Swanson who fed Laurie Devine hugging the right touchline, he crossed the ball back into Swanson who fired home from close range.

On 27 minutes Richie Hutton almost doubled the lead when he cut inside on the left and angled a shot which Brian Shwake got down well to gather.

Just past half hour mark Finlay Anderson was penalised out on the right touchline for what looked like a hard but fair tackle, and remarkably was booked for his troubles. The subsequent free-kick was taken short and lofted into to the far post where Lawrie looked to be impeded but the ball was headed back across goal for Kieran Boubekri to stab home from close range.

Willis Hare tried from distance but King got down well to gather, then on the stroke of halt time it was Maclennan again causing problems on the right and his drive from the edge of the area was brilliantly tipped round the post by King to keep the scores level.

Six minutes into the second half and Swanson has a pop at goal from distance but Shwake gathered, however a minute later at the other end Linlithgow took the league when Lewis Crawford and Sean Slaven combined well on the right and when Crawford fired in a cross, Michael Browne was adjudged to have handled, perhaps harshly. Dean Cairns converted the kick.

Six minutes after the second, Linlithgow added a third when MacLennan crossed to the far post where David Brownlie met it to score from close range. Blackburn were hanging on a bit at this stage and with 20 minutes left Scott Stevenson hit the bar.

Into the last ten minutes and Blackburn got a goal back when Laurie Devine raced into the box but was bundled over by Ewan Moyes who was also shown the red card. Devine took the penalty which was blocked by Shwake but the ball came back to Devine to fire home.

Blackburn pushed for the equaliser against the 10 men but Linlithgow managed to see the game out.

Blackburn United: Gavin King, James Mildren, Martin Lawrie, Finlay Anderson, Michael Browne (Alan Higgins 54), Marc Smith (Paddy Queen 80), Kieran Swanson (Craig Young 80), Stuart MacLeod, Laurie Devine, Marley Redfern. Richie Hutton (Kai Wilson 65). Unused sub; Ryan Kidd

Linlithgow Rose: Brian Shwake, Scott Stevenson, David Brownlie, Ruari MacLennan, Willis Hare, Dean Cairns, Kieran Boubekri (Brodie Strang 76) (Khedive McIntosh 84), Ewan Moyes, Lewis Crawford, Daryl Meikle, Sean Slaven. Unused subs; Myles Hogarth, Jay Sandison, Kenneth Barr.

Referee: Chris McNab Assistants: Lee Pirie, Andrew Brown.