Linlithgow Rose rescued a point thanks to a dramatic late equaliser in their East of Scotland Premier Division opener away to West Lothian rivals Blackburn United, writes Callum McCormack.
The Burnie took a surprise lead through Scott Richards, before an injury time equaliser from Owen Andrew ensured that the Rose took home a share of the spoils in a 1-1 draw.
In early season sunshine, it might have been assumed pre-match that title favourites Linlithgow would control proceedings, but United came out the traps with intent and vigour in the early exchanges.
However Rose would be the first to create chances. On 10 minutes, Mark Stowe would go close as he cut in and curled an effort from the edge of the box that glanced off the post before bouncing wide.
Stowe would be involved again soon after. His chasing of a ball over the top forced Blackburn keeper Jakub Welna off his line, and the Burnie new boy was perhaps fortunate not to see himself penalised after appearing to impede the Rose forward as he dived at his feet. Despite protests from the Rose players, the official would wave for play on.
Welna then produced a tremendous double save to keep the scores level. Sean Heaver’s free-kick found Gary Thom in the centre of the box and his header was good but was well saved by Welna. The ball would fall to the feet of Liam Allison but again the keeper would react well to deny the Rose defender.
However, with the ball still live, Greg Skinner must have been sure he had opened the scoring, but he could only watch as his header rebounded off the crossbar.
Into the second half and Rose would continue to push for an opener. And again, they would wonder how they didn’t find one. Jack Ogilvie did well to find Conor McKenzie to the left of the United six yard box, his shot beat Welna but Kyle McLung did well to clear off the line.
The Burnie almost took a surprise lead 15 minutes into the second half as substitute Kieran Sweeney did well to keep the ball in before finding Laurie Devine who teed up Richards on the edge of the box. The former Bathgate man would agonisingly hit the outside of the post.
Linlithgow continued to look dangerous though. Stowe had looked good throughout but it would once again be Welna that was the hero. The striker was relatively unhampered as he powered his header towards the top corner, only to watch Welna pull off a magnificent one-handed save.
The game was quickly opening up for both teams and it was the Burnie’s turn to find themselves wondering how the scores were still level. Sweeney did well to beat the offside trap and found himself one on one with Cameron Binnie in the Rose goal but the keeper did well to get a touch on the curling effort and see it wide.
The deadlock would finally be broken from the resultant corner though as Richards was left unmarked in the centre of the box, easily heading home to give United a surprise lead with 10 minutes to go.
And he almost doubled his team’s tally five minutes later but Allison cleared his effort off the line.
That would prove crucial as, with time ticking away, Linlithgow drew level. Two minutes into stoppage time, and a failure to deal with a Rose corner saw captain Gary Thom poke the ball towards goal with a final touch from Andrews guiding it past Welna to provide heartbreak for the Burnie and relief for the Rose.
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