Our next fixture sees us on the road for the first of three away ties in a row, to West Lothian in order to face Blackburn Utd in the South Challenge Cup 2nd round.
Last Saturday there was an evening of festivities in Bonnyrigg celebrating 1978, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the second (and last) occasion of the Rose winning the Scottish Junior Cup. Our opponents are celebrating the same year as it marks their 40th anniversary of their existence in their current form.
The two clubs also have something else in common, in that both community clubs (along with Murieston Utd) were granted SFA Legacy Award status on the same date at Tynecastle in 2015 (Brian Smilie picking up the Blackburn award, the name escapes me who did for Bonnyrigg). Like Bonnyrigg, Blackburn offer a pathway for both boys and girls into adult football and the Burnie have an accomplished ladies football team. The clubs differ in the support that they have received from their respective local authorities and other bodies since 2015, given their recent move in the last few years to New Murrayfield Park and facilities they can rightly be proud of for all of their hard work, while we continue to rely on self sufficiency and no support from ours - a truly postcode lottery. 2015 also saw the last time the two clubs met each other with the Burnie ending up the victors on that occasion in a Fife & Lothians Cup tie after a penalty shootout when it ended 1-1 in normal time (Colin Wilson scored a scarcely deserved 90th minute equaliser in normal time).
Much like the plaudits given to Dalkeith in last week’s preview, Blackburn were one of the first sides to declare their intent in joining the EoS and along with the Jags are the only other side that have migrated from the Juniors to have been accepted for SFA membership subject to meeting licensing criteria before the current embargo was put in place by the SFA. On the playing front they have had what they would probably call given their progress over the past few seasons a mixed bag of results since their move to the Seniors, as while they progressed through the qualifying league group before being put out by Haddington in the preliminary round (who we face in Round one) they have yet to pick up a point in the league. They have a mixture of yourh and experience in their large playing squad, and Rose fans may recognise Stewart Devine (ex Bo’ness, Linlithgow) in defense and the prolific Darren Downie (ex Broxburn, Armadale) up front, who like Kyle Wilson has already reached double figures for the season among their starting line up.
Last Saturday Bonnyrigg put in a consummate performance against Dalkeith in a much anticipated derby game which drew a big crowd. Most likely there will be some shuffling of the squad due to players returning having been unavailable while more are unavailable for Saturday’s encounter. Those that do make the starting XI will try to stake a claim to hold on to the jersey for the following week’s Scottish Cup tie at Deveronvale but first things first; there are still some players in the current squad from the last time the Rose faced Blackburn so the expectation is they will be take nothing for granted at New Murrayfield Park this weekend.