The beaming summer sun breaking through the clouds, over 1,000 of you fantastic fans huddled inside NDP and cinch League Two football being played in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian. It’s really, really not a bad time to be a supporter of the Rose.

Robbie Horn fielded a strong starting XI as one would expect, with the only two selection issues being suspended striker Keiran McGachie and ruled out wing-back Bradley Barrett. Our visitors, Forfar Athletic, lined up with much of the same squad that sealed a second-place league finish in 2021/22.

Sensing a chance to make a statement in Boomtown, Rose piled on the pressure from the first whistle. George Hunter teed up Callum Connolly within the first 60 seconds, though the midfielder’s powerful strike flew high over the crossbar.

By the third minute, Hunter was again in amongst the action. Kerr Young had surged forward into an advanced position and knocked the ball down to the forward’s feet, but Geo couldn’t keep his balance as he swung at the ball and blasted it over.

Kevin Smith headed over from a Neil Martyniuk corner and Young could only find the side netting from a tricky shot, but there was not to be an opener for Rose by half-time. The visitors only mustered one shot in the opening 45; McCluskey took aim at goal from 20 yards before his shot was instantly blocked by Alan Horne.

Going in at the break, there was no doubt as to which side was on top. It was surely only a matter of time before the lads were rewarded for their efforts.

And that reward came just shy of the hour mark. Martyniuk’s set-piece deliveries kept on coming and this particular cross reached the head of Smith, who knocked the ball goalward and into the arms of Marc McCallum. Or so we thought… The unfortunate ‘keeper, no two ways about it, dropped a clanger and the ball slipped through his arms and his legs into the back of the net.

There were no signs of complacency as the team maintained their professionalism and kept searching for a second, which so nearly came for Smith again. Ross Gray and substitute Kieran Hall combined for some lovely build-up play, before shunting the ball out wide to Dean Brett. The wing-back’s subsequent cross bypassed Tarek Abed at the back stick, where Smith was eager to pounce. King Kev took a fantastic reaction touch but his laced volley excruciatingly blew wide of the post.

The crowd was quick to encourage and push the lads on after the miss, however, and chances kept on coming. Ross Gray almost caught out the opposing shot-stopper with a sneaky dink from the edge of the box, Connolly’s deflected effort nearly snuck inside the front post and a looping header from Hall was expertly parried over by McCallum, who had bounced back following his error for the opener to keep making some strong stops.

However, there was not much the Forfar number one could do about Scott Gray’s masterpiece with five minutes to go. Scotty picked up the ball from his brother Ross high on the left flank, cut inside the opposition’s penalty area and curled the ball directly into the far top corner. It was a corker, simple as that, folks.

Forfar were limited to just two shots (not blocked nor offside) the entire game, with a long range effort dragging well wide and a header immediately after Scott’s screamer whizzing past the post. Not a single on target shot conceded to last season’s third highest scorers is a great positive to take away from the tie for the Rosey Posey – especially so for the rock solid back five who kept Mark Weir’s kit perfectly clean and secured a first club clean sheet for the season.

Another positive is, obviously, winning! In our first ever SPFL league fixture, Robbie Horn’s men collected all three points heading into next weekend’s trip to Bayview Stadium to take on East Fife, historically the most successful club in the Kingdom.

See you there, Rose fans!

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