Bathgate Thistle kicked off their pre-season campaign on Saturday following four weeks of good hard graft on the training pitch. Travelling through to Edinburgh to face Dunalba in what was stifling heat to put it mildly, it gave no one any comfort to see the squad size reduced to the bare bones for a variety of reasons.

The effort and performance from all involved over the 90 minutes was excellent and showed the hard work on the training pitch is already bearing fruit. A 6-2 win should never be sniffed at but the important part of the day was gauging fitness levels and that was a roaring success along with some pretty impressive performances, none more so than the front two who plundered the 6 goals between them (Mark 4 and Euan 2).

Mark was a constant menace to the Dunalba defence and looked like providing a goal every-time he got on the ball. At the back Callum McTaggart slotted into centre half like it was his true calling and Frankie Love made an impressive debut in centre midfield beside the timeless Douglas Pettigrew and two other Bathgate veteran’s Keith McMeeking and David Bell who between the 3 had a combined age of 105!!

Tomorrow we move onto our second match against Blackridge where it will be useful to see a few more of the squad get involved and continue their pre-season build up and challenge those who performed so well on Saturday to match their performances.

Goals: Mark Neil (4), Euan McCraw (2)