Match Preview

Oakley United, East of Scotland Qualifying League, Blairwood Park, Saturday 04 August 2018

Bo’ness United’s victory at home to Leith Athletic means a win this weekend at Oakley United is likely to see them go through to the second round of the League Cup. A complicated system for qualification has the best second place teams joining the section winners with the rest of the second place teams and the best of the third places playing a preliminary round to get to that second stage. Did you get that?

Jeanfield Swifts are favourites to win the section already having two wins but with the one game to play Bo’ness just need to focus on getting three points before seeing how things pan out at the end of it all.

Wednesday’s match saw significant improvement for the BUs although they were still culpable, missing a number of god chances with a defensive lapse giving Leith their goal. However there was lots of good play on show and Bo’ness looked strong for much of the game. Only a repeat of these positives will do at Oakley.

Oakley, like Bo’ness, is a former Junior side finishing fourth place in last season’s South League. They also defeated Leith while losing out to Jeanfield, have the same goal difference as Bo’ness although have scored one more. A draw would see them finish above the BUs in the table.

Bo’ness last visited Blairwood Park over three years ago for a Fife and Lothians Cup tie. The BUs won the day, as although Crag Paterson equalised after Nicky Walker’s early strike, Walker scored again to regain the lead and Kieran Anderson sealed the victory just before the end.

The village of Oakley is a short journey into West Fife and good weather is forecast. A quick jaunt therefore for the BU Faithful to see if their favourites can build on Wednesday’s good display and progress to the next round of the tournament.

John Spowart