Bo'ness United boss Max Christie disputes controversial Nicky Locke red card against Celtic B

With the teams level at 0-0 after 78 minutes in the Lowland League encounter at Newtown Park, Locke saw his marching orders and Celtic’s kids scored two late goals to take the spoils.

“Nicky’s been sent off for serious foul play, tripping their man outside the box, when there were two defenders there,” Christie said.

"Serious foul play is when you try to break somebody’s leg and go in with the studs up. It wasn’t even a goalscoring opportunity. It was a booking, not a straight red.

"I think if we’d kept 11 men on the park the minimum we’d have got was a point.

"We’d been quite comfy, we were not clearing balls off the line and when you go to 10 men against a full-time team it was difficult in the end.”

Christie said he thought Bo’ness’s first half performance was the best the team had been in his time as manager at Newtown Park.

He added: "We were good in possession, great out of possession, our intensity was high and the ability to pass the ball to each other was good.

"I thought we were the better side first half and then they were better second half than us and from 65 minutes on we were doing more defending than attacking.

"I couldn’t fault their effort and the standard of our football in the first half was high.

"We might have created more chances but they had two six feet four centre halves so we had to go round them rather than through them a wee bit.

"It was encouraging, a lot of positives. It was good to have Danny Galbraith back, Nicky Locke was outstanding at right back and there were a lot of good performances throughout, there wasn’t a failure.

"We’ve got to stay positive because we were good.”

Bo’ness are 10th in the table with seven points from six games. They visit East Kilbride in the league this Saturday, KO 3pm, before hosting Spartans next Wednesday, KO 7.45pm.