Masson strike lights up feisty battle.
The Shipyard and Tynecastle shared the spoils in a bad tempered match at Recreation Park as the home team battled for 40 minutes with ten men after Conor Drury had been sent off for a second yellow card. The ref had his hands full throughout the match with the visiting players and management constantly barracking him over every decision that did not go their way. At half-time two Tynecastle players were called to the referee’s room and cautioned for dissent. Furthermore, a Shipyard representative had to advise the ref of the abuse the linesman was receiving from the Tynecastle players. Manager Raymond Drury had to make two changes to his starting eleven from last week’s victory with Ben Couper and Ewan Fotheringham replacing the unavailable Graeme Haywood and Stephen Stark.
The visitors had the best of the opening exchanges as Shippy keeper Mark Rowbotham held an early free-kick and Iain Millar did well to block a shot from Ryan Hall. Rowbotham was in action again in the 16th minute when he pushed away a free-kick attempt from Dayne Robertson. The Shippy struggled to make any chances as the game failed to produce much in the way of entertainment. However, that changed in the 38th minute and it was a disaster for home defender Couper. With no real danger he was well short with his pass back to Rowbotham and the Tynecastle forward got onto the ball and squared it to Robertson who lashed the ball into the unguarded net from six yards. This seemed to rouse the Shipyard and they should have been level two minutes later when Fotheringham shot straight at Craig Cockburn from the centre of goal some eight yards out. The equaliser arrived on the stroke of half time when the ball was only partially cleared and Craig Lowe did brilliantly to guide his header home from fifteen yards.
Craig Lowe is congratulated on his goal.
The second half got off to a disastrous start for the Shippy as Drury was cautioned twice within the opening five minutes, the first for not retreating at a free-kick and the second for a foul on the Tynecastle player. Although they had a man less it was the Shippy who took control of the game with Kevin Masson starting to impose himself on the match. In the 55th minute he volleyed over from inside the box and two minutes later he saw a headed effort bounce down and over though the Shippy players claimed Cockburn had got a touch. Masson was not to be denied his goal and what a goal it was as he smashed a 25 yard free-kick into the top corner to give his side the lead. Tynecastle took control after this as they searched for an equaliser and it came in the 75th minute, but for the Shipyard it was another poor goal to lose as a deep corner found its way to the back post were Hall was unmarked and easily nodded the ball home. The visitors pressed for the winner but the Shipyard defence was comfortable and were able to limit them to shots from distance as their attacks became more desperate as the clock ticked down.
Raymond had mixed emotions after the match when he said “Obviously I am pleased with the way we defended in some aspects, however, both goals we conceded were highly avoidable and we need to cut out the basic errors if we are to win matches. I thought we competed well, once again, against one of the teams at the top end of the league”. When asked about Kev’s strike he said “He has the ability to do that, it was a fantastic free-kick and that’s another great goal he has scored for us this season”.
The next fixture for the Shipyard is away to Lothian Thistle HV on Monday 11th April. Kick off 7.45pm.
Burntisland Shipyard: M. Rowbotham; G. McCann; P. Bell; B. Couper; I. Millar; E. Fotheringham (A. MacDonald); S. Devaney; C. Lowe; K. Masson (E. Anderson); C. Drury; A. Doig (R. McCann).
Tynecastle: C. Cockburn; W. Mitchell (M. Leslie); M. Catlin; R. Ferguson; R. Hall; D. Robertson; D. Crabbe (C. Joyce); D. Munro; S. Adams; M. Robinson (C. Muttitt); R. Malcolm.
Referee: M. Gill.