Special goals see Shippy progress in cup.
The Shipyard progressed to the first round of the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup with a hard-fought but well-deserved 2-1 victory over Dunipace at Recreation Park on Saturday. Two outstanding strikes from Ben Anthony and Kris Murphy had the Shippy in a comfortable position and only a late 95th free-kick strike denied Ryan Couser the clean sheet he deserved. Couser and Dan McBay replaced Finlay Russell and Blair Kerr in the only changes following last week’s draw against Oakley.
The match kicked off under a bright blue sky and warm sunshine in front of a crowd of 142 for this preliminary round tie. The first attempt at goal came from the Shippy as McBay unleashed a venomous drive that whistled just wide of keeper Lewis McMinn’s right-hand post. A long ball into the Dunipace half wasn’t dealt with and the visitors were relieved to see the ball bounce over the bar at the expense of a corner. The Shippy took the lead with a sensational strike four minutes before half-time when Benji intercepted the ball some twenty yards inside his own half, looked up, saw the keeper off his line and smashed the ball over McMinn from the halfway line to send the home contingent wild with delight. He almost scored again three minutes later when his shot from wide on the left was tipped over by the Pace keeper.
Here are the goals from yesterday’s tie courtesy of Dunipace FC.
Liam Taylor replaced the injured Daniel Brockie at half-time with Mikey Gibb moving into the right back position with Taylor taking his place up front. Joseph McGuckin headed just wide for Dunipace after 58 minutes, however, it was the hosts who doubled their lead five minutes later with another sublime strike. Dan McBay found Murphy with a great pass and the big striker cut inside and then curled a beauty into the far corner giving McMinn no chance. The visitors finally started to exert some pressure on the Shippy defence and Conor Kelly went close with a header after 69 minutes, albeit Couser was comfortably dealing with everything else that Dunipace threw at him. Dunipace did pull a goal back five minutes into added time when Kelly scored with a free kick from around 22 yards out, however, there was no time left for the visitors to create another opening and it’s the Shippy who progress to the next round.
Manager Lee Richardson was naturally delighted with the win and he said after the match “I thought we played very well today and in particular looked solid in defence. Benji and Kris’ goals were both out of the top drawer and of the highest quality. I thought we deserved the win and I am looking forward to tomorrow night’s draw.”
We return to action on Tuesday night with a home league match against West Calder United with the match kicking off at 7.30pm. A special thanks to all the fans who came to back the team today and hopefully we will see you all back at the Shippy on Tuesday night.
Burntisland Shipyard: R. Couser; D. Brockie (L. Taylor); K. Crielly; E. Bauld; M. James; D. Anthony; A. McAndrew (K. Beard); D. McBay (K. Ritchie); B. Anthony; M. Gibb. Unused Subs: C. McBay; E. McQuade; S. Strang; M. Robertson.
Dunipace: L. McMinn; G. Dickie; K. Turnbull; W. Greenhorn; A. McKeown; D. Tennant; J. McGuckin (K. Wilson); R. Fleming; C. Kelly; A. Kemp (K. Anderson; M. France. Unused Subs: A. Gilchrist; L. Downie; L. Craig; A. Whitelaw.
Referee: S. MacDonald.