Frustration loomed at Recreation Park as it ended all square at St. Andrews. Bonnyrigg started the first half playing down the slope but it was St Andrews that were quickest out of the blocks. This was evident as soon as the 2nd minute of play where a trip by Burrell in the box left Ref Stockoe with no option but to point to the penalty spot, with no protests coming from the Rose players.
However, not for the first time this season, the opponents were thwarted by the presence of David Hay in the Rose goals and he made a brilliant one handed save with his right hand from the spot kick which went low to his left and pushed it out for a corner.
Four minutes later a chance for Bonnyrigg cam after a ball over the top by Archibald was taken down well by Renton, whose low shot was goal ward bound except for the effort of the St Andrews keeper, who did well to touch it round his right post for a corner.
St Andrew's best chance of the first half came on 25 minutes when a cross from their left back was met by their no. 11 but was headed just over.
Bonnyrigg opened the scoring just before half time when a looping corner from McLeish was met with a glancing header by Ross Archibald for his 5th goal of the league campaign.
The ref blew up shortly afterwards for half time.
The ref had bearly time to blow the whistle for the second half before St Andrews had equalised after a mix up between the central defensive pairing of Horne and White and the St Andrews No. 5, who had already had a penalty saved in the first half, was shown a straight red card for an elbow on Renton.
That seemed to galvanise the home team and they had the better of play for much of the second half. The gaffer decided to ring the changes with Gray, Burrell & McLeish making way for Murray, King & Gemmill.
This nearly payed dividends with 10 minutes to go when King made a break through the middle who split the defence with a ball to Little, only for his shot to go agonisingly past the keeper's left post. Bonnyrigg had one final chance when a ball was was played across the box to Archibald, who despite his best endeavours was kept out by a scrambling St Andrews defence.
All in all it was probably a better point for St Andrews than Bonnyrigg, who are fighting for their Superleague lives at present and on the balance of play justified their point more then Rose did in justifying three.
Next week sees the Rose play at local rivals Arniston in a local derby in defence of their East of Scotland Cup.
Team Line up
David Hay
Alan Horne
David White
Ross Archibald
Chris Gray (subbed 50 - Brian Murray)
Liam McKenna
Kevin McLeish (subbed 70 - Alex King)
David Burrell (subbed 70 - Michael Gemmill)
Sean Grady
Ian Little
Kris Renton