Bo'ness United pay the penalty in Lowland League cup final defeat to EK

After an exciting 2-2 draw during the 90 minutes at Berwick Rangers’ Shielfield Park, with BU coming back from two goals down, Kier MacAuley’s saved spot-kick saw EK lift the trophy for the second year running, having defeated the same opponents in last year’s final 4-2.

On the day, Kyle Connell and Danny McManus both found the back of the net to see EK race into a two-goal lead after just 20 minutes, with Ian Little's side then slowly coming back into the game.

They finally grabbed a deserved goal back through Ryan Stevenson’s penalty just after the hour mark, with Stevenson then slotting home in the 88th minute to level proceedings.

Bo’ness had the chance to lift the cup during the shoot-out after Musa Digba’s two penalty saves in a row, but goal hero Stevenson this time couldn’t covert, taking the spot-kicks to sudden death.

“It is a sore one to take,” midfielder Gemmell told the Falkirk Herald. “We had one kick to win the cup and 30 seconds later the other team were off celebrating.

“I’ve been invovled in a lot of big games over the years, but even at my age now, that was actually one of the hardest ones to take.

“One team has to lose but it didn’t feel like it was going to be us with the way the match swung in our favour.

“Despite losing the final however, I would say it does give us some real positivity going into next season.

“The way the game transpired really showed our character because it would have been easy at two goals down to have just given up on our chances.

“We really showed some quality too. This may be with blue-tinted specs on, but as the game went on, I felt we were the team on top.

“We didn’t sneak a 2-2 draw despite the goals coming late on. We had so many chances and we actually could have won it.”

BU stalwart Gemmell, 36, is now looking forward to taking part in a tough division next year, with Linlithgow Rose and Albion Rovers replacing Spartans and Dalbeattie Star. He says BU’s goal should be to push into the top six.

"The league continues to get better and better,” he said. “I think we’ll see this every year now. Some teams with all due respect are maybe still finding their level but this campaign will be the hardest one yet.

"It will be super competitive but we have to (not counting the B sides) finish in the top three, top four, which would take us into that top six area.

"We always start okay and finish okay. What we need to do is show consistency during that middle part of the season. That will be the key for us if we want to do better than the previous two years in the Lowland League."

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