Burgh Annihilated Against Much-Too-Strong Bo'ness Side

The opening fixtures of 2023/24 always looked pretty daunting and provided a difficult challenge to Newburgh Juniors Football Club.

Friday evening’s visit to free-scoring Bo’ness Athletic was testament to that fact. The simple facts are Bo’ness are too strong for this division and are passing through on their upward trajectory. Last season they netted a staggering 210 League goals from 36 games and winning the Third Division by a massive 28 points.

That tally of goals might not be matched this season, but they perhaps won’t be a million miles away and results like this will bring that number higher.

I am sure that nobody of Newburgh persuasion will want an in-depth post mortem of this evening’s game in excruciating detail. Enough to say that from the first minute Bo’ness stated their intention on the Burgh goal.

From the opening 4th minute strike from the edge of the area from MacDonald there looked to be only one winner. Burgh were no match for a physically stronger, better and hungry Bo’ness side who were in search of goals.

By the time half time came round, it was 7-0 to the home side. Some of the goals were excellent finishes, some were defensive mistakes and things that need to be improved on. But there was absolutely no way back into the game.

A small victory was that it took Bo’ness until the 69th minute to score number 8 and what a strike it was from the half-way line area (I confess I didn’t see it but am not-so-eagerly waiting for Veo to review).

Bo’ness looked capable of scoring with every attack, whether that is a sign of their strength, our weaknesses, or a combination of both, I’ll leave you to decide.

Best wishes to Bo’ness for the rest of the season, I am sure they will be winning a few more games convincingly. But for the Burgh, they need to dust themselves down and put this one down to experience and learn from it.