Bo’ness need extra time in narrow cup win

Despite the 25 point gap between them in the league, there was very little between the sides on the day, and United needed extra-time to get the job done.

In a low-key opening to the game, it was the visitors from Edinburgh who had the best of the half chances.

Midway through the half, United almost made the breakthrough when Ryan Stevenson released Morgan on the right, his ball into Chris Donnelly was good but the Bo’ness skipper’s shot drifted inches wide.

Ten minutes into the second half, the visitors stunned Bo’ness when they took the lead through Jordan Smith, the youngster latched on to a short back-pass header from Stuart Hunter to beat Marshall easily.

Nicky Prentice was immediately introduced and Bo’ness looked a far better side. In the 67th minute United were level with a fine finish from MacKenzie after good build up play between Syme and Donnelly.

With 15 minutes remaining Tynecastle were reduced to ten men after Combe received his second daft yellow card of the afternoon.

Bo’ness tried to utilize the extra man but despite dominating the remainder of the 90 minutes, they only had a few half-chances from corners to their name.

Bo’ness started extra-time on the front foot and received a stroke of good fortune when they took the lead for the first time six minutes into the half. MacKenzie sent a lovely ball to the advancing Devon Jacobs who jinked past his man and sent in a shot which took a hefty deflection to deceive Moffat and find the net.

In the dying seconds the visitors almost forced a penalty shoot-out, but Burgess knocked an unmarked header from a free-kick wide.

United punished this miss when Prentice combined with MacKenzie to fire home United’s third and finally put the game beyond Tynecastle.