Broxburn Athletic and Inverkeithing Swifts played out an entertaining stalemate at Albyn Park last night as both sides scored three goals each, writes Kieran Polland.
The visitors took the lead when Callum Murray capitalised on poor defending but the Brox rallied back and raced into a 3-1 lead at half-time thanks to efforts from Andrew Gillen, Liam Gray and Mark McConnell.
Swifts continued to plug away and shortly after the interval, they managed to restore parity through goals from Tommy Simpson and a trialist.
The draw leaves Broxburn in eighth place in the East of Scotland Premier Division, just a point behind Inverkeithing, with the Brox 10 points behind leaders Penicuik Athletic.
Both teams started on the front foot with McConnell seeing his effort sail over the bar and Swifts’ Greig Spence saw a penalty shout waved away after a tremendous tackle from Jack Sayers in the box.
Murray opened the scoring after the Brox gave away possession in the middle of the park, allowing the Swifts forward to scamper into the box and place the ball past goalkeeper Josh Blair.
Despite the shaky start, the Brox began to improve and Gillen brought them back on level terms after a clever one-two put him square through on goal with little chance of missing.
The goal seemed to imbue Broxburn with renewed confidence and they took the lead five minutes after their first when Gray toyed with the defence before curling a well-taken effort into the top corner leaving Neil Mitchell with no chance to save.
The Brox increased their lead further after striker Errol Douglas saw his shot parried straight into the path of McConnell, who was all too happy to gobble up the effort and stroke it past Mitchell.
As the second half began, Swifts began to pile more pressure onto the home side and five minutes in, Spence swung a low cross into the box allowing an unmarked Simpson to tap home from close range.
Swifts then got back on level terms shortly after when a corner kick was not dealt with in the box, allowing the trialist to nick the ball and tap it past Blair.
The game continued to rage from end to end with Brox substitute Craig Henderson managing to beat his man for pace only for Mitchell to come up with a superb save to deny the home side the lead.
Blair was then called into action after a powerful long-range strike from Spence forced the Broxburn No. 1 to palm his effort over the bar.
There was almost late drama as Swifts’ Brodie Strang fizzed a shot that ricocheted off the post straight into the path of Spence who fired home, but the ex-Alloa player’s celebrations were short-lived as the linesman raised his flag for offside.
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