The Tranent Juniors team who took the field last Wednesday night for their first South Division game of the season against county rivals Dunbar United bore little resemblance to that which represented them during Hamish Colgan’s first season in charge.

Only a handful of last season’s squad remain, complemented by new recruits and others returning after previous spells at the club, among them Jordan Mack who had been signed on a temporary transfer from Edinburgh United. One of those returning after a spell away, Bob Branley, was first to threaten the Dunbar goal but visiting keeper Wood brought off the save.

Andy Jack, another returnee in the Tranent goal after several years’ absence, saved a long-range effort from Taylor, the first of many saves on a busy night for him, but he was beaten after seven minutes by prolific Dunbar striker Young, whose initial shot had come back off the keeper’s legs.

Three minutes before the break Ross Colquhoun was judged by the referee to be guilty of a foul on tricky Dunbar winger Grant in the penalty area, and from the spot Young made it 2-0 to the visitors.

With an hour played Tranent boss Colgan introduced a couple of trialists from the bench. From this point on the best player on the park was home keeper Jack, who brought off a string of excellent saves to frustrate Dunbar in their quest for more goals.

Near the end sub Cammy Reynolds, on for Branley minutes earlier, had a chance following a mix-up in the Dunbar defence but his shot came back off the post.

At the death Dunbar made it 3-0 when Tait lobbed the ball over Jack as he rushed from his goal to confront the danger.

Overall there could be no complaints at all about the outcome, with Tranent’s performance in many respects below the standard expected.

Saturday’s fixture card took Tranent away from home to face West Calder United, who, going by midweek results, started as favourites.

The West Lothian men had inflicted a 3-0 defeat on last season’s third-placed team Blackburn United at the same time as Tranent struggled to get going against Dunbar.

Boss Colgan made a number of changes to the Tranent starting XI, in some cases due to unavailability but in others on account of performance-related issues.

Colgan was missing three key men in Ross Colquhoun, Ryan Hall and Jordan Mack, and after enjoying the better of the early stages Tranent found themselves a goal behind with around quarter of an hour gone following indecision involving Andy Jack and one of his defenders – the goal against the run of play.

Refusing to allow their heads to go down, Tranent battled back and put on a very decent showing over the remainder of the first half. They took a grip of the contest and created several good openings, also hitting the bar as they pushed forward repeatedly, but it remained 1-0 in West Calder’s favour when the half-time break arrived.

Tranent continued to have the better of things in the second half and they eventually earned their justified reward with a little over an hour played, new signing Keith Shields from Newcraighall Leith Victoria claiming his first Tranent goal with a diving header.

The goal buoyed Tranent and they upped their efforts in search of a second goal, which arrived with 10 minutes left when the ball broke to Danny McFadden at a corner and he drilled his shot low into the bottom corner of the net from about 10 yards out.

Bob Branley was unfortunate not to make it 3-1 when he hit the post, and with just a couple of minutes remaining West Calder stole a point after exerting a little pressure on the Tranent defence.

All in all manager Colgan was very pleased with his team’s showing, after a poor performance against Dunbar.

Tranent now take on Falkirk Juniors at Foresters Park on Saturday in their third league outing – Falkirk won 3-0 at Livingston United last week.