Shippy celebrate birthday in style.
The Shipyard celebrated its 104th birthday in fine style as they thrashed local rivals Kirkcaldy & Dysart 4-0 at Recreation Park on Wednesday night. The three points were very much a welcome boost as the Shippy try to fight their way out of the relegation zone. For Kirkcaldy, the result has severely damaged their promotion hopes as they find themselves six points behind third place with only four games remaining. On another night the visitors might have been ahead as the woodwork saved the Shippy on more than one occasion, however, once they got their noses in front the Shippy never looked back and as the scoreline suggests won comfortably in the end. The Shipyard were boosted by the return of Ben Anthony but had to do without his brother Darrell who was ill and Big Millzy whose shoulder injury kept him on the sidelines.
The Shippy had an early chance when Shaun Keatings crossed for Benji but the striker couldn’t direct his attempt on target. Kirkcaldy then took the game by the scruff of the neck as Ricki Cooper sent a free kick wide. Owen Andrew then struck the post from the edge of the area, Jay Bridgeford rattled the bar and then Mark Wilkie hit the post with another free kick. All this happened within the space of a few minutes, with striking similarity to what happened to the Shippy at Meadowbank the other week, as the woodwork denied them on numerous occasions too. When your luck’s out as they say! The Shipyard stunned the visitors as they took the lead when a quality Anthony cross was turned into his own net by Wilkie with 22 minutes on the clock. The Shipyard were now the dominant team as they got a grip on proceedings and were unlucky not to go two ahead when Jack Wilson’s ferocious drive was brilliantly saved by keeper Dion Gear. The second goal duly arrived in the 42nd minute when the Shippy were awarded a penalty. Craig Watt was fouled in the act of shooting and when the dust had settled Wilson calmly scored from the spot.
The Shippy started the second half on the front foot and had a couple of half-hearted penalty shouts as Keatings was starting to find space in the box. Another penalty was awarded on the hour mark as Anthony was impeded as he burst into the box. Once again Wilson took the kick and although Gear got a hand to the ball, such was the power in the shot he couldn’t keep it out and the Shippy were three ahead. The game then saw a couple of flash points as firstly Kirkcaldy manager Craig Ness saw red for entering the Shipyard technical area and was sent off for adopting an aggressive attitude. Then the Shipyard then received a red card, this time on the pitch, as Watt was shown a red card for an off the ball incident. The fact that the Kirkcaldy player involved received no punishment for his part in the altercation was surprising. Being a man light did not deter the Shippy as Anthony shot across the face of goal. Bridgeford hit the outside of the post as the visitors looked for what would only be a consolation in the closing stages. Anthony had another strike saved by Gear before, in the 89th minute, Keatsy put the icing on the birthday cake with a quick Cruyff turn which totally wrong footed the Kirkcaldy defence and followed up with a rabona finish from around six yards out to round off a great night for the Club.
Manager Dave Costello was naturally delighted when he said “Finally we got a couple of breaks tonight and we went on to produce a great performance. I thought all the boys stood up tonight and they all contributed to the win.”
On Saturday (22/04/2023) we welcome Dunbar United to Recreation Park for the first time in what is a vital game for both sides.
Burntisland Shipyard: S. Costello; D. Thomson; J. Wilson; S. Strang; M. James; C. Watt; S. Keatings; J. Galloway (R. MacAulay); B. Anthony; S. Glancy; R. Wardlaw (L. Ross). Unused Subs: R. Connor; R. Crichton; C. Lewis.
Kirkcaldy & Dysart: D. Gear; R. McGowan (J. Nouri); L. Anderson; R. Cooper; T. McKenzie; J. Smith (S. Jeffries); J. Bridgeford; C. Hannah; R. Kinnaird (S. Donald); O. Andrew; M. Wilkie. Unused Subs: C. Auchterlonie; C. Finnie; R. McEwan.
Referee: K. Gibson.