Bo'ness Athletic 5-2 Armadale Thistle: Hosts comfortably see off their nearest rivals

Unpleasant memories of finishing third in the former 1st Division Conference X last season – four points adrift of second placed Syngenta and promotion – were far from the minds of Athletic followers as their favourites brushed aside Armadale in this league clash thanks to strikes by Dylan Paterson (2), Tiwi Daramola, Jason Mackay and Grant Rose.

"I think we have added motivation to go up this season after the experience of last term when perhaps some naivety in the squad with only a few games to go cost us,” Athletic secretary Derek Oliver told the Falkirk Herald.

"We also had suspensions and injuries at the wrong time.

"But it came down to a couple of double headers against Whitburn and then that debacle against Syngenta.

"And we still even had the opportunity to go up last season if Darvel had beaten Tranent, but Tranent were victors in that play-off so we missed out.

“But we are in a different place now with a stronger squad and the mindset that the management team has instilled in the squad this season has meant that we are constantly pushing to be successful.

"Many of the core of the squad have developed that extra year and they are ready to move onto the next chapter, the second division and we look forward to that challenge.

"Going by the number of goals that we’ve scored and the number that we’ve conceded, there is a real winning mentality within the squad to really go and push convincingly as much as we possibly can.

"I think we have a stronger squad in depth than we did last season. I think the results over the course of the season show that we have a squad that can compete at any level in the East of Scotland League pyramid and we are looking forward to taking the next stage.”

Athletic are next in league action at Fauldhouse United tomorrow (Tuesday) with kick-off at 6.30pm.