Shippy sink Craigy as Masson shines.
What a difference a week makes! After last week’s debacle at Duns the Shippy turned on the style as Craigroyston were thrashed 5-1 at Recreation Park. Kevin Masson was the star of the show with a hat-trick but it was the overall team performance that pleased manager Raymond Drury the most. Speaking after the match Raymond enthused” In today’s game the whole team done the job that was asked of them and what a difference an experienced goalkeeper makes as the back four looked far more assured and confident. I was delighted to get Mark (Rowbotham) from Thornton during the week. We were good from back to front as we tried to build from the back when possible”. When asked about the contributions from his new signing and hat-trick hero he said “I don’t want to single anyone out because it was a great team performance though I was obviously delighted by the impact Mark and Kev made on the match”.
Alongside Rowbotham, Graeme Haywood, Pete Bell, Scott Devaney and Stephen Stark all came in to the starting eleven.
The opening stages of the match offered little in the way of goalmouth incidents as both teams looked to get the upper hand. It wasn’t until the 26th minute that there was a clear chance when Stark saw his shot deflected for a corner. Stark was again in the thick of it in the 36th minute when his powerful left foot strike was well saved by Craigy keeper Ewan Robertson. The Shippy took the lead in the 38th minute as big Millsy scored for the third game in a row. A corner was cleared out of defence to Gavin McCann, who headed the ball back into the box and the big defender was on hand to sweep the ball into the net from around twelve yards. The Shipyard were now dominating proceedings and both Masson and stark had opportunities before Masson fired in a 25 yard screamer on the stroke of half time to double his side’s lead.
Kev Masson celebrates his third goal
Masson scored again within a minute of the restart when he got on the end of a Conor Drury free-kick and guided the ball home to put his team three up and in a comfortable position. Masson completed his hat-trick and made it 4-0 in the 59th minute with another accomplished strike as he gathered the ball wide on the right and drove into the box before rolling the ball across Robertson and into the far corner. Craigy pulled a goal back in the 63rd minute with a fine free-kick from substitute Zac Williams as his flighted effort went in off the underside of the bar. Henderson replaced Masson and looked determined to make an impact as he looked lively from the moment he came on. Firstly Craigroyston keeper Robertson saved at the big man’s feet before Hendo was brought down in the box for a stonewall penalty. Nobody was going to get ball off him to take the spot kick and he duly lashed the ball home to make it 5-1. A couple of minutes later the Shippy were denied a second penalty when once again Hendo was brought down, however, to everyone’s astonishment the big man was booked for simulation. A strange decision to say the least! Hendo then chested a ball down into the path of Craig Lowe but the midfielder was unable to keep his shot down. With a couple of minutes remaining Rowbotham made a good save from ex Shipyard player Keith Buckley and from the resultant corner Craigy went close to pulling one back but the headed effort went narrowly over. Deep into added time Henderson jinked his way along the bye-line but could only hit his shot into the keeper’s midriff.
Next Saturday (2nd April) the Shipyard are at home again with Tynecastle being the visitors. Kick off 2.30pm.
Burntisland Shipyard: M. Rowbotham; G. McCann; P. Bell; G. Haywood; I. Millar; A. Doig (R. McCann); S. Devaney (E. Fotheringham); C. Lowe; K. Masson (E. Henderson); C. Drury; S. Stark.
Craigroyston: E. Robertson; A. Swinney; N. Rendal; O. Fleming; L. Barbirou; C. Sutherland (G. Summers); C. Rooney; J. Young; K. Buckley; C. Dickson; C. Inglis (Z. Williams).
Referee: C. Newman.