Our habit of taking an early lead continued into this match. Some good work by Tony McGlennon forced a corner, from which Charlie Kirkwood put us one up with a header. Shortly afterwards, Kilmarnock's missing players turned up and Mulrine was relieved of refereeing duties without anything controversial having happened. The new ref got in on the action almost straight away by awarding Kilmarnock a penalty after Scott Traquair had fouled their striker just inside the box. To be fair, it did look like a definite penalty, and no mistake was made from the spot. Controversy followed two minutes later when a Kilmarnock player seemed to be caught offside by a long ball but play was waved on. Nicky Sutherland blocked his shot at close range but then appeared to be bundled over just before the ball was backheeled into the net to put Kilmarnock 2-1 up.

Sparta Jag went back up the pitch in search of an equaliser. Stevie Walker clipped the bar direct from a corner and Paddy Kelly managed to hit the woodwork twice. It was around this time that one of our opponents was taken unwell and had to leave the pitch. Kilmarnock duly assimilated the ref back into their squad and the whistle was handed to Mulrine once again. With ten minutes to go in the half, Kelly levelled the scores with a shot into the bottom corner, but Kilmarnock soon scored again and managed to hold their lead until the interval.

Kilmarnock's invalid had recovered sufficiently during the break that they were restored to a squad of twelve and were thus able to supply the referee for the second half. We made a promising start as Traquair twice forced their keeper to make good stops at close range, and it wasn't long before Charlie Kirkwood equalised with a fine diving header.

There was further controversy two minutes later as Kelly was brought down in the box just after shooting straight at the keeper. No penalty was awarded, and our opponents went straight up the park and scored, with the Sparta Jag defence appealing in vain for offside. In an attempt to quell the protests, the referee offered to hand over the whistle one time too many, and musical refs continued as Stuart Deans duly took the job on, although he would later pass it on to Kilmarnock's original referee.

We came close to equalising when Traquair managed to round the keeper but his shot was blocked on the line, and the ball finally went wide after a goalmouth scramble. Kelly soon made it 4-4 when he ran through to shoot high past the keeper into the net, but just when it seemed victory might be on the cards, our hosts scored twice in close succession. First, a free kick was nodded on past a crowd of defenders and into the net, and then they hit the bar with a shot but were able to get to the rebound first and turn the ball over the line. We regained a glimmer of hope almost straight away when Traquair scored a fine debut goal from the edge of the box, but Kilmarnock managed to hold out for the victory.

Squad: Sutherland; Craig, Sangster, Walker S, Deans, Donnelly; Arrial, McGlennon, Kirkwood, Condron; Kelly, Traquair.