Bo'ness United battle but lose out East Kilbride in Lowland League Cup final

The Newtown Park side travelled through to Broadwood on Sunday hoping to cause an upset against Mick Kennedy’s team – who had just sealed a spot in the SPFL pyramid play-offs – but they found themselves a goal down after just six minutes when Cammy Elliot fired home from a corner.

And it looked like it was going to be a long afternoon for the BU when Daire O’Connor’s deflected effort sailed past Liam Campbell on the half hour mark.

However, Livingston loanee Lucas Stenhouse handed Hunter’s side a lifeline on 36 minutes when he took advantage of slack defending to fire home and half the deficit before the break.

In the second half, the BU battled and kept Kilby at bay but they really failed to create any big chances, with one late ball flashing across the box the best they could muster.

Any chances of a late comeback to take the game to penalties was ended on 87 minutes when Elliot grabbed his second from the penalty spot after a despairing tackle to halt a swift counter-attack.

"I don’t have any complaints, I think we were beaten by the better team,” boss Hunter told the Falkirk Herald.

“I’d expect EK to be the better team, they've got ten times the budget that we've got.

"For the first 35 minutes, I didn't really feel that we acquitted ourselves strongly enough into the game. We were a wee bit too passive with them. We never really got to grips with it and then found ourselves two goals down.

"We then managed to rob the ball back and get a goal. That revitalised us a wee bit.

“Then, the longer the game went on, I didn't think EK were really threatening us but I don’t think we threatened them. I was always confident that we were going to get our chance but it didn’t really come in all honesty.

"The penalty is just one those things; we are chasing it at that point. My guys say it wasn’t a penalty. I didn’t see it.”

The BU created little in the second half but they did create some decent opportunities early on in the match. And Hunter says that those “fine margins” were the difference on the day.

"We had a couple of breakaways and we just didn’t pick the right pass. That is what we spoke about after the match. We had to get those moments right. The different is that when you play a team with the quality of EK, they get those big moments right.

"When they have a couple of options on, they always pick the right one. Those are the fine margins. I don’t think we disgraced ourselves – we did well without the ball and took the sting out the game for spells.”

Bo’ness now face a busy end to the Lowland League campaign as they look to try and climb above Civil Service Strollers in eighth. They host Cowdenbeath in a rearranged match while this newspaper goes to press on Wednesday night. On Saturday, the BU travel to third-placed Caley Braves.