Season 2004/05
AFTER A successful pre-season that saw three victories and two draws recorded in five matches, Dunbar United were the visitors as the 2004/05 campaign opened with a League Cup group tie and two Chris LYNCH goals on his competitive debut helped the side to a resounding 4-1 win. Holders Fauldhouse United were sunk by 3 second half goals as Blackburn moved to the top of League Cup Section Two a week later. A disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Haddington Athletic was then followed by a thrilling 3-3 draw away to Harthill Royal to keep the side clear of the Gibbshill Park outfit at the top of the group, but a 3-2 reversal at Dunbar in the return match against the Seasiders allowed Royal to climb to the top of the section by mid-September with just three games remaining. By the end of October a home defeat by the men from Harthill ensured the visitors progressed to the semi-finals of the competition at our expense. A 2-0 victory at Haddington the following week, though, all but guaranteed second spot in the section, a position secured despite a narrow defeat in the oft postponed home game against an improving Fauldhouse United, a game that saw Mark CAMPBELL notch our goal in what was his 300th appearance for the club.
In the League, the hoped for start didn't materialise when the trip to Livingston United resulted in the poorest performance of the season to date, although that mid-September defeat was improved upon next time out when Stoneyburn were put to the sword at the end of October to see the team move up to mid-table with games in hand over each of the title contenders above. Back on Cup duty, a first round trip across the Firth of Forth to face Super League side Thornton Hibs on a bumpy pitch in the Fife & Lothian's Cup saw a fine performance go unrewarded in a 1-0 defeat. To compound matters a 3-0 reversal at Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic in the First Round of the Brown Cup and a 3-1 loss at revamped Beechwood Park in Sauchie ended our interest in all but one of the local cup competitions by the end of January.
However, two victories in the Junior games premier competition, the OVD Scottish Junior Cup, were just reward for the continued improvement of the side. Aberdeen's Wilson's XI from the North Premier League were beaten by the odd goal in five in a Murrayfield Park second round replay earned a week earlier when Craig FINDLAY had netted a deserved equaliser four minutes from time. In the third round, Ayrshire giants and two time winners, Kilbirnie Ladeside, arrived in the middle of a poor run and Lee DOCHERTY ensured that run was to continue when he claimed the only goal of the game to send the United fans in the 200 plus crowd home happy. Sadly though, the Scottish Cup adventure ended on a frozen pitch in Fife when Hill of Beath Hawthorn took advantage of a couple of defensive lapses in the first half and then added a last minute goal to edge into the last 16 on the back of a flattering 3-1 victory.
Sandwiched between that Junior Cup defeat and the Brown Cup exit at Bonnyrigg was a 1-1 League draw at Dalkeith Thistle a week before Christmas. This defeat kept the side in the bottom half of the table and that position wasn't improved upon when early February saw our first home league game in forty three weeks start with trialist goalkeeper David Osborne (who signed a few weeks later) being sent off within the first half hour, a harsh decision which helped allow our visitors, Haddington Athletic, to emerge victorious by three goals to one. However, a fortnight later things were back on track when a glorious Lee DOCHERTY hat-trick helped the side cruise to a 4-1 victory at previously undefeated Edinburgh United. Once more though, inconsistency was back on the menu and this resounding win was followed up by a second 1-1 draw with Dalkeith Thistle in another disappointingly lack lustre display before our trip to second top Penicuik Athletic saw the home side mount a smash and grab raid in the last seven minutes to score twice and secure all three points after we had led 1-0 at the break. Confidence knocked, two successive home games earned just one point before a 6-1 thumping at Tranent was enough to prompt manager John Jamieson to tender his resignation, a decision that was reluctantly accepted by the club who moved quickly to appoint John's assistant, Gary Wilcox, as interim manager, an appointment that was to be confirmed as permanent after, ironically, a 1-0 home victory over Tranent in early May.
By that time, though, United had relinquished their one remaining foot hold in knock-out competition after succumbing at Newtongrange Star in the Second Round of the St. Michael's Cup, two of the First Division sides three unanswered goals coming from particularly soft penalty kicks. Including that Tranent win, 12 points were wrung from the remaining eight league fixtures, the highlight of which was a 2-1 midweek victory at Burngrange after the side had trailed to an early goal, a result that all but put an end to hosts West Calder United's hopes of promotion. In typical Blackburn fashion, however, the season ended in defeat when a 2-1 lead against Livingston United, both goals coming from Mark CAMPBELL in a game that was rumoured to be his last as the prolific hitman pondered retirement, was squandered in the closing five minutes.
Season 2005/06
After the addition of a number of new faces and the departure of several weel kent ones, a series of pre-season friendlies began when the team advance to the Final of the Eddie Queen Memorial Trophy with a 4-3 victory over a Central League Thorniewood United side who had been hoping to pick up where they had left off in their promotion campaign of last term. However, the following day’s Final, although witnessing a spirited display for the first hour or so of the game, was perhaps a step too far and the side went down against a much fancied Fife outfit in the shape of Oakley United. Victory over Bannockburn Amateurs was then followed by defeat to Fife League promotion favourites Kelty Hearts in the last of the warm up games.
When the competitive stuff began, a 4-0 reversal at the hands of newly promoted West Calder United here at Murrayfield Park was quickly followed by a narrow 2-1 defeat at Broxburn Athletic, who fielded United old boy Mark Campbell in their starting XI, that saw the team sit near the foot of their League Cup qualifying section. A thrilling, yet ultimately wasteful 3-3 draw with Livingston United four days later wasn't enough to change that position. Another League Cup group defeat, this time at a Fauldhouse United side setting the pace at the top of the section, perhaps didn't quite reflect the growing improvement in the sides performance. A week later though, a hugely disappointing 1-0 loss in the opening Whyte & Mackay Second Division fixture at Dalkeith Thistle underlined the need to put the ball in the net while on top of games.
Back on League Cup duty, four goals were again shipped against West Calder United, although the eventual 4-2 scoreline flattered the Burngrange Park men somewhat, while Fauldhouse United completed their home and away success against us in the competition by edging home 2-0 here in a game that was relatively tight up until the Park View side netted their second with around ten minutes remaining. Our second trip east in the League came the week after this defeat and, despite a second half comeback of sorts, the two goals leaked in the first half of a torrid affair were enough to allow Tranent to hang on to all three points in a narrow 3-2 victory.
October brought another clash with Fauldhouse United and, sadly, another defeat, this time in the first round of the Scottish Junior Cup. After a scoreless draw at home to Broxburn Athletic in a League Cup group game a week later, Gary Wilcox and his brother Gordon were relieved of their duties as manager and assistant manager respectively and replaced by ex-player and club record goalscorer Mark Campbell with 2003/04 Player of the Year Brian Smillie installed as Mark's right hand man. In a baptism of fire the following week against Super League side Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic, the only team in the East Region that Blackburn have never beaten, the new management duo saw their charges succumb by five goals to one. However, seven days later the side went nap, hitting Livingston United for six in the final League Cup Sectional tie and two successive 2-2 draws in the league against promotion contenders Broxburn Athletic and Haddington Athletic followed to begin November with the side finally looking to have run into some form.
The months of December and January then underlined just what a turn around the new management team had wrought when four successive league victories, including a remarkable 6-4 home win over Dunbar United and a 2-1 success against then league leaders Tranent, took the side to the summit of the Second Division. Despite top scorer Lee Docherty jumping ship to fellow promotion contenders Broxburn Athletic directly after that Murrayfield Park victory over Tranent, a fifth win on the trot was then chalked up at previously unbeaten Harthill Royal to consolidate top spot in league. A 2-1 reversal at the hands of First Division Sauchie in the Fife & Lothian's Cup in the midst of this run a week before Christmas was the only real blip during a period that had produced several fine performances.
Come February the side retained pole position in the chase for the Second Division title with a comfortable 2-0 home victory over Dalkeith Thistle, despite Harthill Royal exacting a little revenge in a thrilling 4-3 win here at Murrayfield to keep within striking distance a few weeks later. Exits from the East of Scotland Cup and the Brown Cup to higher league opposition put an end to all our interest in the knock-out competitions but two league victories and two clean sheets against Stoneyburn and Livingston United saw the early weeks of March negotiated without any further league points being dropped.
However, the wheels were to come off by the end of the month when, after dominating from start to finish away to closest challengers Broxburn Athletic, a sloppy own goal that constituted the Albyn Park outfits only effort on target over the course of the ninety minutes gifted the home side all three points. There seemed little doubt that this set back saw some heads go down and despite taking the lead against Dunbar United and Haddington Athletic in the final two league games of the campaign both were lost and our narrow lead at the summit of the table was overhauled by eventual champions Broxburn Athletic several weeks later.
Ironically, as the remaining games panned out once we had fulfilled our fixtures a draw in that game at Albyn Park and two wins in the final two games would have saw the league title won - two wins that would've been eminently possible had the major disappointment at Broxburn been avoided.
