A near-three-month gap separated Tranent Juniors’ last but one win with their next, the 4-2 defeat of Harthill Royal at Foresters Park a fortnight ago, and the relief at ending that unenviable run inspired some to think they might achieve another positive result when Whitburn Juniors were their visitors on Saturday.

Whitburn had lost 5-2 at Haddington on their previous visit to East Lothian a few weeks earlier, but besides that setback they’d enjoyed good form since manager Tom Hendrie took over in September and have very much re-established themselves in the race for a promotion spot.

Like almost everyone travelling from the west, Whitburn’s journey was disrupted by the situation stemming from a fatal road accident in the early morning, but that didn’t seem to affect their players unduly, though it took them a little while to warm up after Tranent enjoyed a bright enough start.

Whitburn had a goal disallowed for offside but they took a grip of proceedings after this and went ahead on 22 minutes when Hamilton tapped home a cross from Brass, who went on to miss a real chance to make it 2-0 shortly afterwards. Tranent couldn’t get a foothold in the game and they went further behind on 38 minutes when Alex Valenzuela parried a Brown shot into the path of the visitors’ dangerman Brass, who snapped up the chance.

Right on half-time Tranent were handed the chance to get themselves right back into things when visiting defender Hamilton was adjudged to have fouled Anton McKillop in the box and the referee pointed to the penalty spot, but keeper Horne dived brilliantly to his left to save Ross Colquhoun’s spot kick.

The second half was less than five minutes old when Tranent were gifted a lifeline, a corner to the back post troubling the Whitburn defence, who were unable to clear, and eventually Bain put the ball into his own net. This gave James Thomson’s men a real boost and they enjoyed a reasonable amount of possession over the course of the next half hour, though Whitburn too had the odd chance.

Tranent’s equaliser arrived on 65 minutes and came from an unexpected source – from a corner the ball was cleared only as far as the edge of the box, where centre half David McLeod was waiting to strike it beyond Horne for his first goal for the club.This stunned the visitors, some of whom appeared visibly rocked by the turn of events, and Tranent were ready to take advantage.

With quarter of an hour left, however, they were reduced to 10 men after veteran Kenny Rafferty reacted badly to a challenge from an opposition player, leaving the referee little option other than to show him a red card. This development appeared to lift Whitburn spirits and they exerted a fair bit of pressure on Valenzuela’s goal over the remaining 15 minutes – as time wore on Tranent looked increasingly likely to take a creditable point from the game, but there was a cruel twist right at the end which gave the visitors victory.

With 90 minutes virtually complete, Whitburn played the ball into the box and claimed for a penalty in the belief the ball had come off Darren Ramsay’s hand – the referee saw nothing amiss, though, and instead awarded them a corner after the ball left play off a Tranent defender; from the corner, the ball reached Whitburn centre forward Brown 15 yards from goal and he found the net with a good strike, prompting wild celebrations among the visiting contingent. From kick-off there was no more than 20 seconds played before the referee blew for time up.

Tranent will take heart from their showing last week when they make the short journey to Haddington on Saturday to face the South Division table-toppers. They were unlucky to lose 2-1 to the Hi Hi at Foresters Park in early October and will aim to make it difficult for their local rivals again.