Bo’ness United suffered a second half collapse to go down to a heavy defeat against Arniston Rangers on a muddy Newbyers Park The BU's also finished the match with ten players as, with Arniston four goals up, Kevin Donnelly was red carded after a verbal exchange with the referee.

The BU's looked the better side in the first half and even had the ball in the net but the goal was disallowed, the referee indicating that Jon Tully had fouled an Arniston defender as he got up to head past Arniston keeper Stuart Baillie.

However there was no doubt about who was the best team in the second half as Arniston blitzed Bo’ness with five goals without reply. Dean Thornhill started the scoring in 51 minutes when he caught out Robert Burns, curling a low shot into the net from wide on the left.

The first goal had come after Ryan McCallum’s  free kick effort crashed off the Bo’ness bar and was not properly cleared but eight minutes later the Arniston centre forward did get a goal when this time his free kick shot went through the Bo’ness defensive wall to beat Robert Burns.

Arniston made it three in 74 minutes when David Thornton out jumped the Bo’ness defence to head in from a Dean Thornhill corner and Ryan McCallum scored again in 78 minutes as he accepted a pass from Scott Lucas to shoot low past Burns. McCallum was replaced by Ubong Umatang and after Kevin Donnelly’s dismissal the Arniston substitute scored the final goal of the day eight minutes before the end getting onto the end of a David Thornton ball to put in right on the goal line.

It was a miserable day all round for the BU faithful and the dreadful weather mirrored Bo’ness’s worst display for a long time.