Robertson to the rescue as Shippy gain point.
A resilient Shipyard stuck to their task and earned a share of the spoils after super sub Dale Robertson scored an injury time equaliser to deny hosts Ormiston a win that they probably deserved over the piece. Jordan Mushet, Todd Arthur, Darrell Anthony and Mark James returned to the starting line-up following last week’s defeat in the Scottish.
It was all Ormiston in the opening stages as Chris Robertson headed wide from a corner, Jonathan Edmond got in front of Shippy keeper Mushet but could not direct his effort on target and then Mushet held a flick on at the near post. Ormiston’s early pressure eventually told in the 19th minute, however, Edmond looked yards offside as he raced on to a though ball before placing his shot beyond Mushet. The Shipyard slowly started to get into the match and Pete Bell saw his powerful shot blocked then in the 37th minute James saw his drive well saved by keeper John Nisbet at the expense of a corner. Just on half-time an Ormiston forward was through on goal though Mushet did fantastically well to thwart the danger. Once again the player looked yards offside, nevertheless the referee again waved play on.
The Shipyard stunned their hosts by drawing level within a minute of the restart when Craig Lowe volleyed a partially cleared cross into the roof of the net. Ormiston responded with Edmond hitting the side netting and back at the other end Adam Doig fired across the face of goal. The hosts took control of the match again with Edmond going close before they regained the lead on the hour mark. The Shipyard would have been disappointed with the defending when Mikey Hamilton was able to stab the ball home from close range beating Mushet at his near post. As the match moved into the last ten minutes the Shipyard started to impose themselves on the game and sub Gary Osborne was denied by a great save from Nisbet. There was controversy a few minutes later when fellow sub Ryan Kelly was floored in the Ormiston box but to the disgust of the Shipyard players the referee was not interested. It certainly looked of the stonewall variety, however, justice seemed to be done in injury time when Andy MacDonald expertly controlled the ball before playing a defence splitting pass that Robertson strode on to and despite being pulled back he showed great composure to lob the ball over the advancing keeper to earn his team a point.
Dale Robertson netted late leveller for Shipyard.
Alex was happy to get a point from the match but was very disappointed with his teams display when he said “I am very pleased to get a point from a difficult game against Ormiston with a good last minute equaliser by Dale Robertson. We never managed a point against the same opposition last season”. Turning his attention to the team’s performance he added “We only had some decent passages of play in short spells, however, our passing and ball retention was poor. Too many passes were over hit or under cooked and most of our crosses, corners and free-kicks were too close to the keeper who commanded his box well. However the spirit and effort shown by the team was evident throughout the 90 minutes and they kept on trying until the final whistle. We scored two good goals, should have had a penalty and the Ormiston keeper had a good save from Gary Osborne near the end of the game. Defensively we limited clear cut chances but looked vulnerable to crosses and corners. Ormiston had quite a few new players and their left winger and captain played well and they will feel unlucky not to have taken all three points from the game. I would like to wish them well for the rest of the season”. Looking ahead Alex was straight to the point when he said “We have a lot of work to do in training to improve our performances this season and I should have a friendly match organised this midweek so I can try some things out”.
Ormiston: J. Nisbet; C. Milne; K. Watson (A. Borthwick); G. Cunningham; R. Ferguson; C. Robertson; M. Osborne; A. Jones; J. Edmond (N. Cairns); L. Cochrane; M. Hamilton. Unused Subs: B. Fairgrieve; C. Cairney; N. Ramsay.
Burntisland Shipyard: J. Mushet; T. Arthur (R. Kelly); P. Bell; G. Haywood; A. MacDonald; C. Lowe; JP McPhail (G. Osborne); D. Anthony; M. James; E. Henderson; A. Doig (D. Robertson). Unused Subs: B. Saunders & R. Couser.
Referee: R. Thomson.