Musselburgh Athletic reverted to Superleague business on Saturday after brushing aside county rivals Tranent Juniors 6-0 in their Fife & Lothians Cup clash the previous week, aiming for a fourth consecutive win in all competitions.

They were in West Lothian to meet bottom side Armadale Thistle, the fixture rescheduled after having been postponed on October 4 just after Stevie McLeish’s appointment as manager at Olive Bank.

Although Armadale had been struggling for points they had only been losing narrowly by and large, and McLeish was well aware that his team wouldn’t have it easy at Volunteer Park – he made one change to his starting XI, with Steven Thomson given a recall while Michael Hunter dropped to the bench.

After last Friday’s heavy rains, the pitch was soft underfoot but it was a competitive affair from the outset, though Musselburgh enjoyed the brighter start. Their pressure told in the 21st minute when top scorer Jordyn Sheerin, fresh from a haul of no fewer than five goals against Tranent, opened the scoring with a terrific finish, but Armadale weren’t bowed by the loss of the goal, asserting themselves increasingly over the course of the remainder of the first half. Sheerin’s goal was all that split the teams at the break, leaving things very finely balanced for the second period.

A mistake by ‘Burgh keeper Ally Adams allowed Armadale the chance to level four minutes after the restart, and Dalrymple took full advantage by steering the ball into an empty net from a yard or two outside the penalty area.

There wasn’t much between the teams now, with pitch conditions something of a leveller, and Musselburgh were a touch fortuitous in the restoration of their lead on 65 minutes, with home defender Brown putting the ball into his own net.

The lead didn’t last too long, though, with Armadale finding themselves back on level terms six minutes later, Dalrymple finding the net for a second time.

At this point it looked like the points could go either way, but the goal flurry continued as the visitors took the lead for the third time on 73 minutes. Again it wasn’t especially pretty, Lewis Turner delivering a cross-cum-shot which deceived all in and around the home goalmouth, goalkeeper included, and ended up in the net. Musselburgh committed three separate substitutions in the minutes after their third goal, with Gary Hamilton replacing Ecky Christie first of all before Jed Davie came on for Steven MacDonald and finally Hunter replaced Turner.

Armadale fought hard in their quest to rescue at least a point, but it wasn’t to be and Burgh claimed a welcome three points after a performance which perhaps wasn’t one of their best – given the conditions, though, they had every right to be pleased.

The current winning run ensures all at Olive Bank are in a positive frame of mind ahead of this week’s Scottish Junior Cup third-round tie at home to Luncarty. The Perthshire club are much improved generally when compared to the whipping boys they seemed to be for a long spell, conceding goals by the bucketload – on their last visit to East Lothian in November 2008 they were thumped 7-0 at Haddington. Nonetheless, Burgh are strong favourites to come through the tie and should do so with something to spare.

There were changes to the Burgh squad last week, with Murray Christie departing to join Civil Service Strollers after finding opportunities hard to come by this season. Youngster Kyle Doig has gone on loan to Arniston Rangers until the end of the year.