Linlithgow Rose kick-off first Lowland League campaign in style with victory

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Linlithgow Rose got their first-ever Lowland League campaign off to the perfect start with a hard-earned 3-1 home win over the University of Stirling.The Rose were crowned East of Scotland Premier Division winners last term and hoisted their championship flag prior to kick-off and they got their new era underway in style as skipper Connor McMullan headed home just three minutes into the contest.Dylan Paterson showed he can be an ideal replacement for Mark Stowe, who departed for Championship side Arbroath, with a fine debut that included jinking beyond a defender before firing across the face of goal for McMullan to meet with a diving header to open the scoring.If the Rose were in any sort of doubt about the step up to the fifth-tier, they were quickly reminded as Uni fought back and bagged themselves an equaliser with the dangerous Cameron McKinley finding the bottom corner from 12 yards just after the 15-minute mark.The frontman caused problems all afternoon and he was adjudged to have been clipped in the box by Conor McKenzie on 32 minutes - but Cammy Binnie produced an excellent save to deny Ciaran McAninch.That would prove to be a momentum-changer as the Rose promptly restored their lead five minutes later with McMullan showing tremendous footwork in tight space to get to the bye-line before cutting back for Jack Ogilvie to sweep home.The hosts started brightly after the break with Sean Heaver curling over after Paterson teed him up from Binnie's long ball early on.

The latter two linked up on 56 minutes to a greater effect as the keeper's terrific long pass was latched onto by Paterson and he duly set up Jamie Allan to roll home Linlithgow's third.Neither side created much after that with the Rose backline thwart