Tranent Juniors had been left frustrated a fortnight ago when their derby fixture at Haddington Athletic was called off late in the day by the match referee, but conditions at Rosyth on Saturday, slightly surprisingly, were good enough to allow them to play their 17th league fixture against the team positioned third in the South Division table.

Tranent had been beaten 3-0 at Blackburn United a fortnight earlier in their first outing of 2015, while for Rosyth this was their first competitive action of the new year and they were eager to net three points and consolidate their place as promotion contenders, having lost twice in December away to the top two, Haddington Athletic and Whitburn Juniors.

Rosyth have experienced a big turnaround in fortunes since last season, having finished third from bottom in the first South Division table to feature Fife clubs, and manager Lee Richardson has put together a sprightly young team.

Tranent, on the other hand, have been struggling for some time now and appear to lack the quality and the experience to improve a league position which would be a lot worse were it not for their promising start to the season.

On a somewhat heavy playing surface, it was Rosyth who took the game to their visitors from the outset, in what was to prove a rather one-sided affair. Such was the course of events early on the only surprise was that it took the Fifers 22 minutes to break the deadlock, Hampson heading home from a corner.

Alex Valenzuela in the Tranent goal kept the opposition forwards out with good saves on more than one occasion but he was beaten again when Morrison took advantage of a slack defensive clearance and, right on half-time, Rosyth scored their third when Goodwin blasted the ball high into the roof of the net. In truth, the 3-0 interval scoreline didn’t flatter the hosts and Tranent had barely been seen in any sort of attacking sense.

Rosyth went for the jugular at the start of the second half and Hampson quickly notched their fourth goal before Johnstone scrambled home their fifth. The threat of a real rout was all too grim a possibility for Tranent but there was the merest of consolations for them when Stevie Finlayson tapped home from close range.

Valenzuela was called upon a number of times but the pressure was too much and Morrison made it 6-1 before Hampson completed his hat-trick five minutes before the end.

There were no positives to be taken for Tranent from an awful afternoon – they were second-best from beginning to end and can only hope this was a low point in the course of a very challenging campaign.

On Saturday, Livingston United are their visitors at Foresters Park – they’re only two points ahead of James Thomson’s men and also go into the game on the back of a thumping last week, having lost 6-1 at form team Falkirk Juniors after taking the lead and holding it for much of the first half. Relegated last May after a solitary season in the Premier League, Livingston started the season badly but had appeared to have stabilised over the past two or three months.