Bo'ness United gaffer Max mad over 'terrible' foul on Danny Galbraith but Linlithgow Rose ace Ruari MacLennan insists he didn't try to hurt player

“The challenge on Danny was so bad that I don’t think we’ll play Linlithgow in a friendly again after that,” Christie told the Journal and Gazette.

"People are het up in a derby and MacLennan has absolutely gone in to hurt Danny.

"It was a ridiculous tackle.

"It was a really cynical, terrible challenge. He had to come off after 15 minutes because the boy MacLennan has just sliced him completely off the ball.

"Then MacLennan came over at half-time and said to Danny: ‘You’d better get some ice on that’. That wasn’t great.

"Danny's ankle has ballooned up the size of a football yet the ref hasn’t even booked MacLennan.

"Danny has had a few career threatening injuries so to get that from a fellow player who’s trying to hurt him, nowhere near the ball, was the end to a ‘perfect’ day.”

Christie said Galbraith had since had ice on the injured ankle all week and was very doubtful for the BUs’ Lowland League opener at Rangers B this Saturday.

But, despite Christie’s strong views to the contrary, MacLennan told this paper that he hadn’t gone out to hurt Galbraith.

‘Rooster’ said: “It was a local derby and it was supposed to be a friendly but you don’t get friendlies between Linlithgow and Bo’ness.

"I’m preparing for a season when I’m trying to win a league. I’m not going in to play tippy, tappy stuff and finish seventh in the Lowland League. They might be quite happy doing that.

"I was going in against good players like Galbraith that I want to compete against, but at the same time I would never, ever go out to intentionally hurt someone.

"I was a wee bit behind the guy, I tried to scoop my leg round to get him and my knee went into his achilles. How can I mean to do that at that speed?

"I tried to apologise at half-time. I put my hand out to shake Galbraith’s, said: ‘Sorry about that mate’.

"Then he went: ‘Aye, f...’. So I just replied: ‘Go and get plenty of ice on that tonight’.

"That was maybe out of order but that was only because I’d tried to initiate an apology and got that response.

"It does infuriate me a bit to hear people saying that I’ve gone out to deliberately injure someone.

"Don’t get me wrong, there are a couple of times where maybe I’ve put in a heavier tackle than I needed to but at the same time, they were dishing it out as well.

"They’re all big boys. Their right back was putting in the tackles.

"I’m 33 and I previously played at Bo’ness for a year. Allan McGonigal (ex-BU boss) always told me: ‘Don’t get bullied on the park’ first and foremost.

"That has always stuck with me as well.”