The omens are looking good for Bo’ness United to upset Queen’s Park in the Scottish Cup this Saturday as the reigning East Region Junior Champions are managed by a player that once scored against the Hampden side, they won the last time the amateurs came calling on competitive duty at Newtown Park and they also have a squad that have played more games in The Scottish Football League than their opponents.
Manager Willie Newbigging scored at Hampden for Alloa Athletic during a six year spell as a Wasp two decades ago. However, you need to go a good bit further back to the 8th February, 1928 for the last occasion that both clubs met in a competitive match.
Plain Bo'ness as they were then, gained revenge for a 1-0 First Division defeat in October 1927 in Glasgow by winning 2-0 at Newtown Park, the same ground that will host tomorrow’s Second Round tie.
Bo'ness were relegated to the Second Division at the end of the 1927/28 season finishing second bottom with the club placed immediately above them and just avoiding relegation being Hamilton Academical.
The win over The Spiders came in the middle of a ten year spell as members of The Scottish Football League that started in season 1921/22 and ran until 3rd November, 1932.
Bo’ness, who actually won the SFL Second Division Championship in season 1926/27, had to suffer the ignominy of the results of the matches in season 1932/33 being expunged from the records as the season had started before they withdrew.
The club remained senior in various regional leagues until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. A Junior side was created in 1945 with United added to the name after fellow Junior outfit Cadora joined in.
Queen's Park were of course the very first winners of the Scottish Cup back in season 1873/74, and have the third highest number of total wins with ten. Only Rangers and Celtic have a higher total however, it was back in season 1892/1893 that Queen’s Park last won the Scottish Cup when they defeated Celtic 2-1 at Ibrox on 11th March, 1893.
The aura of the Third Division club has added spice to the tie with Newbigging saying, “To draw a Scottish Football League club is special but to draw a club with the history of Queen’s Park adds to the occasion. A club that has won the competition and has played here in the past makes it a great Draw.
“Everyone here has been smiling about it for weeks, the players, the fans and the Committee, especially the Treasurer.
“In simple terms for the town of Bo’ness, this is the biggest game to be held here in over 70 years. It is the biggest game in their history apart from the Junior Cup Final wins of 1948, 1976 and 1984.”
A crowd of 2,000 is predicted with Newbigging saying, “The people of Bo’ness come out and support us well and they turn out in really big numbers on special occasions. We had 2,500 here when we won the East Region Junior League against Linlithgow and I am sure they will be here in great numbers again.”
Newbigging is calming things down all the same saying, “Queen’s Park have good young players and we are definitely the underdogs. I played against them loads of times when I was at Alloa and scored once at Hampden. I reckon we lost 2-1 but rest assured, my players will be getting told about my goal before they take the field on Saturday although I may not mention the final result!
“We have a great bunch of lads here that train hard and play hard. They usually like a bit of a carry on but it has been quite serious stuff this week in training so that tells you they are serious about winning.”
The BU’s squad is packed with SFL experience with 11 players in the squad for Saturday having senior experience. That experience is considerable with full-back Derek Fleming’s involvement in 400 plus League games all the way from Meadowbank Thistle to Cowdenbeath during a 16 year career outscoring the total number of appearances of the Queen’s Park starting 11 at Elgin last Saturday.
Newbigging said of the 37-year-old, who appeared for Livingston in a losing Challenge Cup Final against Airdrieonians a decade ago, “Derek has been outstanding for us during his time here. He has approached things in the same manner he did when he played at senior level and he has been a big part in the success we had last season.”
Behind Fleming is goalkeeper Ryan McGurk, who played for Berwick Rangers a couple of years ago, with the remainder of the Bo’ness defence packed with experience.
Newbigging added, “Fraser Forrest was at Alloa and we also have Will Snowdon who started his career at Ipswich and had spells at Livingston, Hibs and Partick Thistle. Roger Duffin has never played at senior level however, he is the Scotland Junior International captain so he knows what the game is about as well.”
The midfield pool has Gary Carroll, once of Aberdeen and more latterly Alloa Athletic, along with Barry Donald, who has played for six senior clubs in the past decade. John Fraser, who started at Dunfermline Athletic before seeing service at Ross County, Clyde, Stranraer, Stirling Albion, Forfar Athletic and Arbroath, can also be called upon for engine room duty as can Andy Shirra, who helped Stenhousemuir out of the Third Division in season 2008/2009 via the play-offs and spent the most recent pre-season training with Alloa Athletic.
Up front Bo’ness have a striker that Celtic once paid £100,000 for, with 29-year-old Paul Shields having spent three years at Parkhead, coming on once as a substitute, following the six figure move from Raith Rovers. Shields was sent out on loan to Albion Rovers, Clydebank and Queen of the South during his time in the east end of Glasgow before joining Clyde on a permanent basis. He then moved on to Forfar Athletic, sampled English football with Gillingham before returning north to Livingston for two seasons that included a loan spell at Ayr United.
Newbigging said, “Paul was out playing in Sweden and came back to Scotland a year ago and could not get a club. He has been with us since and formed a great partnership with Darren Gribben who has now stepped back up with Berwick.”
Nicky Walker played for Stirling Albion against Celtic in a Scottish Cup tie two years ago and Blair Young has just joined on from Falkirk to complete the number of players currently playing for Bo’ness that have previously played at senior level.
The last time the club participated in the Scottish Cup was back in season 1938/39 however, as East Region Junior Champions, they gained entry to this season’s competition and they defeated Selkirk 6-1 in the First Round.
It was a nervous return with Newbigging saying, “We started really nervously down there where we missed a couple of chances and then lost a goal. We needed an equaliser before settling down and I am hoping that now we have that out of the way, we can use the experience we have in the team to ensure we do not freeze against Queen’s Park.”
72-years-ago, they lost 4-1 in the First Round to Hamilton Academical and that result will leave present day Bo’ness Director of Football, Allan McGonigal, with mixed feelings as he is also the Under-19 Youth Team Manager at New Douglas Park.
McGonigal is playing his part in plotting the downfall of Queen’s Park despite being in Spain this week with Newbigging saying, “Allan is over in Spain just now on holiday but he has had Queen’s Park watched twice and he is putting together a thorough dossier on them. We will speak on Friday and on Saturday morning to go through things.
“He does not get to many games now because of his commitment to Hamilton but he is always on the end of a phone. It would be good if he was here for this one as he was the Manager that led us to the title which got us back into the Scottish Cup.”
One thing the Bo’ness players will be told is to forget about looking to take the club to Hampden for a replay with Newbigging saying, “At the moment, I am not keen on that as we have Junior games backing up. We will be going out for the win and we will not be sitting back to watch Queen’s Park play.
“I watched Irvine Meadow at Easter Road against Hibs last season and the 3-0 scoreline flattered Hibs. Irvine Meadow did Junior football proud and I hope that Bo’ness do the same.”
Bo’ness Committee man, John Aitchison, has been rushed off his feet trying to deal with the interest in this game from across the United Kingdom.
He explained, “We have had enquiries from all over Britain and whilst it has been the busiest time of my five years of being on the Committee here, it has been great.
“We have two guys coming up from Southend for the game and they have been in touch for details as they have only ever followed our fortunes on-line before.
“There are a few ground-hoppers coming up from Yorkshire and they have been asking for tickets. They know where they are coming to as they visited us last season and promised to come back.
“We also have a party coming from the SFA headed up by Campbell Ogilvie to see first hand what the Junior game can offer the Scottish Cup.”
The interest has been replicated locally with Aitchison saying, “There is a real buzz about the town and lots of people telling me they will be there to support the boys. It is great for Bo’ness and great for the local area that football is thriving here.
“Whilst not everyone around here will say it, I am disappointed our local rivals from Linlithgow did not make the Second Round, as that would have been amazing for the people of this part of West Lothian.”
Aitchison was asked if the club would like to make games against SFL a regular occurrence and he advised, “As a club, we are progressing and winning the East Region Junior League last season was the first time in 41 years we had done so and Allan and Willie deserve great credit for this.
“Of course, we also realise we have more chance of winning the Emirates Scottish Junior Cup than we do winning the Scottish Cup but you never know!
“The cost implications to us would be huge in terms of the groundwork required at Newtown Park so it is a stumbling block just now. If we keep progressing and events like the Queen’s Park game happen more often than once every 72 years, well it is something we would have to look at.”
BO'NESS UNITED FC OFFICIAL WEBSITE
SECOND ROUND SCOTTISH CUP TIES
- Deveronvale v Dalbeattie Star
- Forres Mechanics v East Stirlingshire
- Preston Athletic v Annan Athletic
- Clyde v Berwick Rangers
- Wigtown & Bladnoch v Buckie Thistle
- Beith v Glasgow University
- Nairn County v Cove Rangers
- Keith v Spartans
- Stranraer v St Cuthbert Wanderers
- Bo'ness United v Queen's Park
- Whitehill Welfare v Wick Academy
- Golspie Sutherland v Girvan
- Montrose v Arbroath
- Edinburgh City v Threave Rovers
- Albion Rovers v Sunnybank
- Elgin City v Brora Rangers
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