Bo'ness United 4-2 East Stirlingshire: BU boss proud of team's turnaround in 4-2 win

Bo’ness United ace Finlay Malcolm grabbed a double as his side defeated local rivals East Stirlingshire 4-2 last Saturday afternoon at Newtown Park (Pictures: Ashleigh Maitland)

Goals from Luke Rankin and Jamie Penker saw the visitors surge into a two-goal lead just before the half hour mark, but a Lewis Hawkin’s strike, a double from Finlay Malcolm and a late-minute screamer from Ryan Porteous turned around a dramatic match, which also saw the Falkirk side go down to ten men during the second half when both Matty Flynn and Tony Coutts were sent off.

Speaking after the match, BU boss Stuart Hunter hailed his team’s turnaround.

“We showed real character,” he said. “I said to the guys at half time that I actually didn’t think that we had done too much wrong. We created a good few chances and opening but didn’t quite manage to put them away. We gifted them the opening goal through poor communication which is disappointing. The second goal was probably avoidable too.

Jamie Penker (left) celebrates making it 2-0 to the Shire (Photo: Ashleigh Maitland)

“Going 2-0 down, you need big characters. The ball was in the air too much during that first half. I said to Kyle Johnson that he had headed the ball more times in 45 minutes than he had done all season long.

“We got the ball down and started to play. We caused them real problems and we rolled the sleeves up. Getting an early goal helped us and it felt like we were very much the team that was going on to win the game.”

Former Falkirk player Malcolm grabbed a double on the day for the Newtown Park outfit and Hunter was delighted to see the striker play a staring role in the team.

He added: “I had a chat with Finlay (Malcolm). He has trained well over the past few weeks and we had a bounce game last Tuesday that he scored a couple of goals in. He was out on the pitch on merit. I was delighted to see him grab a couple of goals.”

Tony Coutts (pictured) and Matty Flynn were both sent off for the Shire (Photo: Ashleigh Maitland)

Bo’ness now travel to tenth-placed Cowdenbeath this Saturday as they look to keep the pressure on Tranent in fourth spot.

Ahead of that one, Hunter said: “Cowdenbeath will be as hard and difficult as we make it for ourselves. There are no easy games in the Lowland League, we need to bring that desire to really want the three points.”