February started as January had finished. The weather got the better of us all yet again with a flurry of Friday evening snow and a hard frost rendering the pitch unplayable on the Saturday morning when the referee made his inspection.

However the weather finally relented and after almost a month of inactivity, Rose and Cumnock squared up for an eagerly awaited encounter although Rose continued to miss Mark Tyrell as well as the formidable pairing of Herd and Carrigan up front through injury and suspension respectively. The home side could scarcely have made a worse start as they conceded a controversial penalty and Logan was dismissed as last man. Both decisions were furiously contested by the Linlithgow players and management team – Jim Sinnet certainly didn’t miss referee Ian Craig in his post-match comments.

Despite going down to 10 men, Greig Denham restored parity as he tapped home an equaliser. However, poor marking allowed Cumnock to ease back into the lead before a huge deflection left Pinkowski with no chance of reaching a 20 yard drive by Campbell. 3-1 down at half time, the Rose faithful expected a strong second half fightback. But with the game breaking up at every turn and too many players suffering an off day it never materialised as Rose whimpered out of the cup. Cumnock deserved their victory on the day but the supporters were left feeling that had their favourites played to their capabilities this tie was there to be won.

The post mortems ran on but Rose had no time to sit back and dwell on their misfortune. An away league fixture at Hill o’ Beath was next on the cards and Rose badly needed 3 points to hang on to the coat-tails of the leaders. However, there was further bad news as it emerged that Greig Denham was unlikely to feature again this season while Tyrell and Herd remained on the sidelines and Carrigan served out his suspension. A dire first half was followed by a dreadful second half performance as Rose lost 3 goals inside 10 minutes and succumbed tamely to defeat for a second successive week.

Next up were Camelon as Rose looked to finish the month on a happier note. Carrigan was back and Herd made the bench but Donnelly joined Denham on the injury list. Without their first choice central defence pairing, Rose struggled to contain Camelon. Level at the interval, Camelon dominated the second half but just when it appeared that the Rose might see the game out they were sunk by a late winner. Confidence had disappeared and the constant need to chop and change to deal with injuries to key players was clearly having an impact. Ironically, Camelon conceded yet another own goal in this fixture. As a result, over the two games the clubs shared 3 points each, 6 goals were scored and none of them by a Rose player!

February had been a dreadful month for the Rose. Out of the Scottish and well off the pace in the league they had to hope they could re-group for the run-in to the season. Life was definitely on the turn for Rose fans.