Into the new year and Rose kicked off with a 4-0 win over Oakley to set them up nicely for the visit to Palmerston the following week.

Cup fever was in overdrive by now. The confidence among the Rose faithful was not matched by the bookmakers who offered 10000/1 against the junior outfit lifting the trophy. Nevertheless, all the talk in Linlithgow was of an off day for Queens and a Spartans-like performance by the Rose to produce one of the great cup shocks.

Greg Denham was an early doubt for the match as he sought to recover from minor knee surgery.

Steve Tosh then re-kindled the debate over the value of junior teams to the Scottish Cup with a less than glowing view on the matter. However, there were plenty lining up in the juniors’ corner to support the bold move by the SFA – citing Linlithgow’s performances as justification for offering a link between the codes within the Scottish game.

As far as Queens were concerned, the game itself could not come quickly enough. They had been rampant in league and cup for weeks and their supporters expected them to deliver.

The Rose fans flowed into Dumfries from Friday evening through to Saturday lunchtime. 1000 away fans helped produce Queens biggest home gate of the season and only Hibernian and Gretna inspired a bigger turnout throughout 2007 – more than proving the value of the juniors to the game in Scotland.

The game itself turned out as many had expected – a comfortable win for Queens. Rose started the better of the two teams and Andy Dick was played into a great position early on but lacked composure. Queens scored in 15 minutes with their first shot of match. Dobbie appeared to handle the ball but his turn left Kevin Donnelly chasing shadows and he rifled the ball past Logan with ease. That set Rose back on their heels and really settled Queens.

Having had the benefit of the doubt for their opening goal, Queens secured a second lifeline when Neil MacFarlane escaped a red card for deliberate hand ball having already been booked. However, when Thompson and O’Connor extended Queens’ lead to 3-0 by half time the writing was on the wall and damage limitation became the order of the day.

The second half was an end to end affair as Rose came out of their shell and Ian McSween gave the Queens right hand side a difficult time. Carrigan crashed a free kick off the bar and McArthur stepped over a cut-back when it seemed he was certain to score himself. At the other end, Logan produced a string of saves to keep Queens out but he could do nothing to prevent a ricochet off McArthur hitting the back of the net.

In the end, a final score of 4-0 showed the gulf in class between the teams. Rose deserved a goal or 2 for their efforts, their full-time opponents thoroughly merited their place in the 5th Round.

The supporters of both teams rose as one to acclaim the efforts of the junior team though and how they deserved that acclaim as they set a standard for their junior successors in the competition. The supporters roared their approval from the first minute to the last before heading back to Linlithgow to continue celebrating a landmark in the club’s history.

No sooner had calm been restored before thoughts turned to the Scottish Junior Cup. Cumnock were next up for the Rose. As expected, Brian Carrigan was handed a ban for his sending off against Bo’ness. However, Sean Grady was eligible to play and Greig Denham looked set to return to the defence.

However, the day before the game the Rose were forced to apply to the SJFA for a postponement as most of the squad were struck down by a flu bug which swept through the team. We did not know it but this was the start of a period of illness and injury which was to wreak havoc on the squad right through to the end of the season.

The following Saturday, the pitch was deemed playable but flooding on the stand-side touchline was decreed unsafe by the referee and the match was again postponed.

The draw for the next round of the Junior Cup saw Rose or Cumnock drawn away to Newtongrange or Lochore.

So we left January behind. The Rose were unsettled. Injuries and illness allied to poor weather had resulted in two blank Saturdays and the potential for a fixture headache later in the season. However, the team still retained a strong interest in all junior competitions and if we could get a team onto the pitch this could yet be a great season.