The fifth game of Gary Small’s managerial reign at Foresters Park saw him in charge of a fourth away fixture, looking to try and overcome the disappointment of Tranent Juniors' defeat to Stoneyburn Juniors in his first home game a week earlier.

Lochgelly on their day have proved capable of competing with the South Division’s best and they too were aiming to bounce back from an unfortunate reversal, having lost at Haddington in their previous outing. Small’s cause wasn’t helped by the unavailability of four players – experienced duo Brydon Fairgrieve and Gareth Gray were missing, as were Andrew Horne and Michael Collin, while both signed goalkeepers, Sinclair Inglis and Alex Valenzuela, were ruled out through injury. The manager drafted in James McQueen in goal, the elder brother of former Haddington Athletic keeper Andy having newly left Dalkeith Thistle, and former Musselburgh Athletic and Ormiston youngster Darren McGrath also started.

Adversity such as that suffered this season by Tranent’s players can often breed resilience and, with the odds stacked against them, the visitors put in a good first-half shift regardless of the fact that as a spectacle the opening 45 minutes contained little in the way of notable incident.

Tranent edged things in terms of possession but they were unable to put the home goal under any real pressure, while at the other end debutant McQueen had a pretty quiet time. That the first half ended goalless came as no surprise, and regardless of the quality of the play, Tranent boss Small couldn’t be unsatisfied with the efforts of his patched-up team.

The visitors almost broke the deadlock early in the second half but Richard Fairnie’s looping cross was cleared off the line by home defender Grierson. Lochgelly went on to open the scoring with 20 minutes played in the second half, top scorer Seath netting after McQueen attempted in vain to gather from a long throw-in for the Berts.

Minutes after this, Tranent’s woes were added to when they were reduced to 10 men, Anton McKillop somewhat unfortunate to collect a second booking and consequently a fifth dismissal in his short junior career. There weren’t many further opportunities until Lochgelly’s trialist outjumped the defence to head in their second with three minutes left.

Tranent’s penultimate game of a difficult campaign comes on Saturday when West Calder United are their visitors.