Report

Bo’ness United welcomed the Scottish Junior Cup winners to Newtown Park for an enjoyable friendly encounter that saw the visitors run out winners in front of a good sized crowd.
Bo’ness showed positive intent from the first moments of the match when Nicky Walker forced a corner within the opening minute and from the set piece Ross Campbell headed wide from a good position.
Talbot were next to threaten the goals when Gordon Pope played a lovely weighted through ball to Dwayne Hislop who struck his shot wide when he really should have scored.
New United signing Connor McGregor then had a drive go wide and Darren Cummings had a volley saved before the visitors took the lead on the quarter hour mark. Graham Wilson capitalised on some hesitant defending to play in William Boyd who struck a low drive into the corner of the net from the edge of the area that gave the keeper no chance.
Talbot then had the ball in the net again through Mark Shankland only for assistant referee Craig Macrae to correctly flag for offside.
Bo’ness went close to equalising on twenty five minutes when McGregor crossed for Cummings whose net bound effort was swept away by William Lyle.
After the bright opening the game was to stagnate for a period with both midfields cancelling each other out and it took until just before half time for another effort on goal when Stewart Devine crossed for Trialist B who headed over.

The second half started with a heavy squall that had the fans running for the enclosure but the conditions didn’t affect the visitors who nearly stretched their advantage when a Shankland cross found Wilson whose header was saved.
United were then to enjoy some pressure of their own with Walker having a shot deflected wide and Cummings having a header saved from a Chris Donnelly cross.
The equaliser should then have come just after the hour mark but Donnelly saw his header bounce over the bar and moments later Donnelly was again involved when his low drive was saved and the rebound fell to Mark Cowan who saw his strike well saved by Scott Johnstone.
The decisive second Talbot goal was to come on sixty nine minutes though, when David Gillies played in Trialist B who finished well.
United then had chances in the latter stages but Cummings, Campbell and Cowan all saw efforts go over the bar as Talbot completed the victory.
Auchinleck Talbot:
1. Scott Johnstone
2. James Latta
3. Gordon Pope
4. William Lyle
5. Trialist A
6. Steven White
7. Lee Cochrane (12. Trialist B 31)
8. David Hislop (14. Trialist C 68)
9. Mark Shankland
10. Graham Wilson (17. Davy Gilles 68)
11. William Boyd
Scorer: Boyd 15, Trialist B 89