Pumpherston made the most of refereeing decisions in their favour to rescue a late 1-1 draw away at Fauldhouse United.
Despite both sides being at the wrong end of the East of Scotland Third Division table, they both went into the clash at Park View in good recent form.
But that didn’t translate into a thrilling contest, with chances few and far between for both sides as they largely cancelled each other out.
United had the better of the first-half and just about deserved their 1-0 lead at the interval.
A wonderful passing move on 12 minutes almost led to the opener but Tyrone Core fired over the bar from the edge of the box. Iain Diack’s side enjoyed more of the ball but were unable to do anything with it – until a stunning defence-splitting pass from Ross Paton on 36 minutes allowed Mark Duffy to race through before the striker calmly sent the ball beyond Sammy Baxter.
That seemed to spark Pumphy into life and they went agonisingly close to levelling things up before the break when Aaron Gowans’ delicate chip over Jacob Weatherby beat the keeper – only to bounce back off the post.
Duffy was unable to make the most of a gilt-edged opportunity in the early stages of the second-half as he pounced on an errant Ricky Orr defensive pass. However, he fired wide.
At the other end, Gowans had a strike smartly saved by Weatherby to keep United in the lead. The contest swung for the first time in Pumpherston’s favour on 63 minutes when substitute Paul Fee was deemed to have made a reckless challenge just inside the visitors’ half and was shown a red card just minutes after his introduction.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, United almost bagged a second goal, only for a wonderful double save from Baxter to deny Clark Rankin.
There was no sign of the away side forcing their way back into the clash until they were the beneficiaries – once
again – of a decision from the official.
With five minutes to go, Chris Rooney was adjudged to have been brought down inside the box – a decision disputed by the hosts.
He got up and dusted himself down and slammed home the equaliser from the resulting spot-kick.
Neither side was able to find a late winner with both forced to settle for a share of the spoils when the full-time whistle was blown.
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