Tranent Juniors were back in South Division action for the first time in three weeks when they hosted local rivals Haddington Athletic on Saturday, having devoted a fortnight of their schedule to the Scottish Junior Cup first-round tie against Edinburgh United – a creditable goalless draw at home was followed by a 4-0 defeat in the Capital.

Those games took place under caretaker management, but last week the club announced that they’d appointed James Thomson as manager on a permanent basis. Thomson was assistant to his predecessor Hamish Colgan, who left in mid-September, and was also right hand man to former boss Davie Moyes between 2001 and 2004.

Thomson’s first team selection saw him field the same goalkeeper and back four as had lined up under Derek Little a week earlier, but for one reason or another he was forced into five changes in midfield and attack.

The visitors spurned a couple of openings in the early stages and with eight minutes on the clock Tranent found themselves in the lead. Steven Finlayson picked up a slack ball out of the visitors’ defence and advanced before shooting from 20 yards – ex-Tranent keeper Derek Polowyj could only palm the ball out into the path of Richard Fairnie, who coolly finished from a tight angle.

Tranent put in a power of work and made things difficult for their table-topping neighbours, but they found limited scope to get forward and into the Haddington penalty area. A chance arose on 32 minutes when Cammy Reynolds beat Chris Gordon, another former Foresters Park favourite, to get into the box but Polowyj was alert to the danger and saved his angled shot – a stoppage followed as Gordon was treated for an injury which saw him helped to the dressing room.

Less than 10 minutes after the resumption of play there was another break in proceedings, this time for treatment to Tranent’s young keeper Alex Valenzuela, who was hurt in a collision with Ferguson as they pursued a loose ball – Ferguson’s shin caught Valenzuela’s head and left him groggy. He held out until half-time, but shortly beforehand had conceded the Haddington equaliser to Ferguson, whose shot from just inside the penalty area drifted over the line.

Concerns over Valenzuela’s health were such that he was replaced by substitute Ross Colquhoun, ordinarily a defender, and taken to hospital for checks. Within two minutes of the restart, Colquhoun was beaten as ex-Tranent striker Murray was left unmarked to head in a cross from the left, but fears this might signal a Tranent collapse proved unfounded, as Colqhoun pulled off a fine save, touching Motion’s powerful header over the bar.

Fortune favoured the stand-in a minute later as Noble’s free-kick came back off the inside of the post, and again when Tansey’s looping effort came off the top of the crossbar – he then brought off two saves in quick succession to prevent Murray from scoring again. Yet another stoppage midway through the second half saw Fairnie suffer a head knock, and he was replaced by Swan.

With 20 minutes left, Keith Shields won the ball in midfield and set up Michael Knox, in a good position in the Haddington penalty area, but Noble’s intervention denied him the opportunity to shoot.

Tranent kept plugging away and were unfortunate with four minutes remaining when Finlayson’s shot from 20 yards curled inches wide of the target. There was a claim for a penalty too but the referee showed no interest, and at the end of 90 minutes’ play Haddington had secured all three points – the task of doing so, however, had proved a lot harder than they maybe anticipated, and new Tranent boss Thomson would have been pleased with the effort his players put into the game.

Saturday’s fixture card sees Tranent away to Livingston United, currently bottom of the table with just a solitary point from nine games. Regardless of league positions it won’t be easy for Tranent but if their workrate and commitment matches that displayed last week they’ll have a decent chance of adding to their points tally.