Shippy lose heavily after poor performance in front of goal.
There was a similarity between this Shipyard performance and what Scotland produced against Holland recently, both 4-0 defeats, in that they played some nice stuff but passed up gilt edged chances and at the other end defended poorly, as Armadale did not have to work too hard for their goals. Had the Shippy taken a great early chance it might have been different; however, it was not to be as the hosts took advantage of the Shipyard’s wasteful finishing and sloppy defending to ease to victory and consolidate their position in the promotion places. The Shippy welcomed back Kearyn Hicks after a long injury lay off and Harris Kay also returned to the fold as he took a place on the bench.
It was the Shipyard who had the first opportunity of the match and what a chance it was as Michael Gibb gathered a loose pass and drove forward unopposed, however, his shot was too close to Thistle keeper Andrew Murphy who saved with his legs at the expense of a corner. Sam Glancy then drove over from the edge of the box. Mikey Couser had to be quick off his line to clear the danger as a long ball beat the Shippy defence. Armadale broke the deadlock in the 15th minute and it was a poor goal to concede as far as the Shipyard were concerned. A corner played into the six-yard box was not cleared and when the ball broke to Juwan Abubakar, he was able to put it away from close range. Ethan Bauld played a great pass to Gibb who’s cross was knocked behind for a corner and when the set piece was delivered Hicks was unlucky to see his header flash wide. Couser then saved well from a Colin Strickland close range strike. Gibb was in the thick of the action again as he received the ball in the Thistle area but the makeshift striker couldn’t get the ball out of his feet and the chance was gone. Gibb had another good opportunity when Glancy found him in the box and although he lobbed the ball over Murphy his effort didn’t have enough power to find it’s way over the line. An Evan Stanfield long range volley was well over the bar just before the Shippy suffered a sickening sucker punch. A ball played out to the left found the Armadale man in what looked like an offside position but unfortunately the referee never saw it that way and Strickland slotted the ball home when he received the pass.
The Shippy made a change at the interval with Kay coming on for the unwell CJ Thomson, however, before Kay could settle into the game his team were 3-0 down as a mistake at the back allowed Declan Wood a golden opportunity and he made no mistake as he fired the ball beyond Couser. There was a controversial moment in the 58th minute as Gibb powered forward. He was clearly tugged back as he went past his marker and was through on goal. To his credit he didn’t go down but stumbled forward and gathered the ball. The keeper parried his angled shot and recovered quickly to deny Dan Thomson as he looked to capitalise on the loose ball. Could or should the referee have brought play back, awarded a free-kick and possibly issued a red card under the circumstances? Was there a clear advantage to the Shippy as he waved play on? Gibb was involved in everything and he might have done better than head wide from a corner as the Shipyard looked for a way back into the game. Any hope of a comeback was crushed in the 63rd minute when possession was coughed up far too easily from a free-kick and Armadale quickly got the ball to Strickland who made it 4-0. D. Thomson had a free kick on target but it was never powerful enough to trouble Murphy and he also had a shot off target late in the match. Armadale fired a couple of dangerous crosses into the Shippy area that thankfully nobody could get on the end of and Couser had one more good save deep in added time as he saved with his legs from substitute Kris Kelly.
This Saturday (06/04/2024) we welcome Dalkeith Thistle to Recreation Park for another league match with the game kicking off at 2.30pm.
Armadale Thistle: A. Murphy; G. Hamilton; T. Murphy; S. Thomson; E. Herriot; J. Fairley; S. McLeod; D. Kane; D. Wood; C. Strickland; J. Abubakar. Subs: C. Baillie; J. Gillespie; K. Kelly; R. MacLennan; C. Nelson; J. Tapping; A. Uphill.
Burntisland Shipyard: M. Couser; E. Bauld; M. Robertson (E. McQuade); K. Hicks; M. James (K. Beard); CJ. Thomson (H. Kay); D. Turner; D. Thomson; E. Stanfield (S. Costello); M. Gibb; S. Glancy.
Referee: C. Stevens.