United were on the attack first against their more illustrious opponents when Alan Brown's well measured through ball picked out Grant Plenderleith accelerating clear on the left of the box but the young striker didn't quite catch his shot as he might have wished and, although it made MacPherson in the home goal stretch, it was ultimately a comfortable enough save for the Musselburgh custodian. Plenderleith then turned supplier when he burst onto the bye line on the right and took MacPherson out of the equation with a cut back that Mitchell only just beat Andy McQuillan to. Athletic, though, were able to flex their not inconsiderable muscle before the twenty minute mark was reached when McCallum got the ball in early from the left for Chris King to stretch and head narrowly past before Tansey hit a pretty decent effort across the face of goal and just beyond the same post. When Brown then won possession in a meaty midfield challenge with Nelson he was able to clip the ball in front of McQuillan racing through on goal and a neat touch from the striker was enough to take him past Ramage only for him to hurry his shot past when he might have had just enough time to steady himself. The Olive Bank side were back around Francis Carlin's goal in short time thereafter though when first Kelly headed Nelson's cross past and then when Carlin made a terrific point blank save from a Currie effort. Carlin then repeated his heroic feat from McCallum's pop after Ramage had hit the left hand upright. However, just when Blackburn seemed to have weathered the storm a bad injury to Fraser Gillespie, to add to those suffered in midweek that had shorn the side of Greig Crooks and David Fowler, and the enforced reshuffle that ensued created that little bit of space down the left for the home side to manufacture a chance right on the break that McCALLUM despatched behind Carlin with aplomb.
Musselburgh started the second half looking to put the tie beyond the reach of United but despite a pretty dominant spell of possession it was Blackburn who arguably came closest in the early exchanges when Nikki Murray and McQuillan linked for Jordan Rintoul to overhit a cross from the right that made it's way to the feet of Ryan Donnelly arriving on the left but he too overhit his delivery, although it almost caught MacPherson out as it dipped onto the top of his bar and over. On sixty minutes Matti King sent Chris King in on the left of the Blackburn area from where he rattled a shot off the junction of post and bar before Porteous played a quick one-two with McCallum to earn himself a sight of goal but his half hit shot didn't overly trouble Carlin. However, the culmination of this sustained period of home pressure came only moments later when Currie slipped a neat ball to DEVLIN who, from what looked like a marginally offside position, spanked a low drive behind Carlin. United, though, were not cowed and were back in the game three minutes later with the help of a rather soft penalty award when Ross Williamson and Ramage challenged for a Donnelly cross and referee Mr. Crichton adjudged the unfortunate centre-half to have bumped the newly arrived substitute. BROWN duly sent MacPherson the wrong way from the spot. Any hopes of a comeback were doused a further three minutes later however when Matti KING was on the end of a scintillating McCallum delivery to slam a wonderful, side footed volley into the net and then, after Carlin had saved an angled Gordon drive, the Blackburn No.1 fumbled a Matti KING header into his net after the substitute had outjumped Tony Gilhouley to reach Currie's cross. In response, Plenderleith got in behind Mitchell to fire a ball across the six yard box that only just eluded Williamson but United had run out of steam and the end of a six match unbeaten run was underlined when a thumping DEVLIN eighteen yarder found it's way past Carlin's despairing dive and into the bottom left hand corner. The last sight of goal was reserved for United when MacPherson hung onto Brown's twenty yard free kick.
Blackburn United Line-Up: Carlin, Spence, Keir (Williamson 67), Miller, Sneddon, Rintoul, Gillespie (Murray 41), Brown, McQuillan, Plenderleith, Donnelly (Gilhouley 73)
Musselburgh Athletic Line-Up: MacPherson, Porteous, Gordon, Mitchell, Ramage, Nelson, Kelly, Currie, McCallum, C.King, Tansey Subs: M.King, Devlin, Gennerazzo, Murphy, Polowyj
Referee: Mr. Steven Crichton
