We swapped one Scottish Cup quest for another as the Rose bandwagon rolled over the hill for the eagerly anticipated clash with Bo’ness. Complaints about a lack of coverage in the run up to the Dalbeattie game had been noted and the Gazette produced an excellent preview for both sets of supporters.

Despite being away from home in a local derby and with overhead conditions severe enough to warrant a pitch inspection, the bookies installed the Rose as firm favourites to progress. These games never go quite to plan though!

Bo’ness and Central Scotland police organised and marshalled the game superbly and there was never a hint of the trouble that had been anticipated in some quarters.

In something of a recurring theme, Rose were again slow to get into their stride. Bo’ness made almost all of the running throughout the first 45 minutes. But, right on the stroke of half time, Gordon Herd controlled a Gallagher cross, swivelled and buried the ball into the Bo’ness net. Herd, his team-mates and the Rose faithful were delirious.

In the second half, Bo’ness threw everything at Linlithgow. Rose suffered a major blow when Carrigan was given his marching orders on 57 minutes for lashing out at Will Snowdon after the latter had body-checked him and escaped any punishment. Logan then produced an outstanding save to deny Mauchline before he too was shown a red card for scything down Scott Brown at the edge of his box as the Bo’ness man seemed certain to score.

Reduced to 9 men, the Rose were right up against it. But, spurred on by one of the most vocal Rose supports in many a year, Linlithgow weathered the storm and by the end Bo’ness appeared to have run out of ideas. Indeed Keith Hogg should have doubled the Rose lead in the dying seconds but appeared to run out of legs as he closed in on goal. But nobody cared - the job was done. Defending magnificently the team showed very little of the quality that marked them out as champions in 2006/07 but demonstrated all the fight and spirit required to secure a result in the most demanding of circumstances.

Bo’ness supporters were left to wonder what might have been and spent their evening pondering their club’s poor fortune. The Rose fans were – not for the first time this season – oblivious to nearly everything!

And so, with hardly time to draw breath, the focus moved back to league business. The Rose were well off the pace at this stage. Although they had games in hand, there is no substitute for points in the bag heading into winter and extreme playing conditions. That’s just what the players encountered at Glenrothes – a venue where the club has always struggled irrespective of the personnel within the team. On a shocking pitch, there were signs of heavy legs among some players and a lack of match fitness among those who had come into the team as they succumbed rather tamely to a 3-1 defeat which put another major dent in their hopes of retaining the championship. Just about the only bright spot on a foul December day was when news filtered through that league leaders Whitburn had lost to Kelty.

The draw for the Scottish Junior Cup paired the Rose with Cumnock. Another tough tie was in store against top flight West opposition but with a home draw the supporters were content that the Rose had every chance of progressing further.

On the player front, Conrad Courts headed back to Fife to join Kelty and Scott Livingstone was freed.

After an incredible run of critical matches, the team finally took some respite from the pressures of league and Scottish Cups when they headed to Coupar Angus in the East of Scotland Cup. The team bus broke down so the players travelled on one of the supporters buses. There was plenty of hot air on the journey up as Coach delivered his team talk. Whatever was said, nobody could hide the gulf in class as Rose strolled to an 11-0 win. Elsewhere, there was a shock for Pumpherston as they were thrown out of the Junior Cup for fielding 2 ineligible players during an otherwise outstanding win over Shotts.

Whitburn were next on the schedule in a must-win game for the Rose. However the weather got the better of both teams and the match was postponed.

And so we reached Christmas. Not quite where we wanted to be in the league but we had made history in the Scottish Cup and Jim Sinnet had maintained his record as a manager who had never seen his team knocked out the junior cup before Christmas.

The year wasn’t quite over though – the Rose confirmed the capture of Sean Grady from Forfar. A Rose target while at Bonnyrigg, he was a welcome addition to a squad starting to show signs of wear and tear. He was pitched straight into the team that beat Ballingry 2-0 on a very difficult surface.

So the month and the year ended. Life was still great for Rose fans – the team was in with a shout of winning every competition and were only a handful of games away from Europe!!!