Bad injury spoils Shipyard’s win.
Shipyard’s fine win over Hawick Royal Albert United was overshadowed by the broken arm sustained by Lee Henderson midway through the second half of Wednesday night’s Conference B encounter at Recreation Park. Henderson’s left arm was broken following an innocuous collision with a Hawick player as they challenged for a loose ball in the middle of the park. At this early stage it is anticipated that he will be out for around eight weeks.
On a brighter note, it was a memorable night for Ben Anthony as the striker scored the first four goals in the 6-0 victory. Ben tormented the visitors defence all evening and could easily have doubled his tally given the amount of opportunities that came his way. Substitute Nathan Feeley who came on early in the second half grabbed his first two goals for the club to complete the scoring. However, it was Ben’s brother Darrell who caught the eye of manager Dave Costello who said after the match “I thought Darrell had an outstanding game tonight, particularly in the first half as he took a grip of the midfield and dominated proceedings.” Costy also had praise for his coach Dean Ewing as he added “Deano’s work with the boys on the training ground is already paying off. He is getting his ideas and methods across to them and I felt that showed tonight.”
For the fourth match in a row, we kicked off in glorious sunshine in front of a decent sized crowd and from the outset the home side were on top. After a couple of half chances B. Anthony saw his shot deflected onto the post by Hawick keeper Sam Scott and two minutes later it was a defender who managed to help his strike round the post. The striker was not to be denied and he opened the scoring in the 24th minute when he took a pass inside the box and calmly placed the ball though Scott’s legs and into the back of the net. Scott then saved well from a Reece Brown free-kick and was happy to see B. Anthony nodding a loose ball wide with the goal at his mercy. The unfortunate Henderson hit the outside of the post after good work by D. Anthony. The relentless pressure continued and a minute before the break B. Anthony shot across the face of goal. Shippy would certainly have been disappointed to be only one ahead as the referee blew for half-time.
It took the hosts only three minutes of the second period to double their lead when D. Anthony played in B. Anthony who produced a composed finish to beat Scott. Benji notched his hat-trick in the 53rd minute when his looping header beat the visiting keeper following a Henderson cross. Incredibly he scored his fourth of the evening with another good finish following a Sam Glancy pass. Feeley came on and looked determined to make his mark and he did so in the 65th minute with a neat finish. His second goal was a thunderous strike that left Scott helpless. It was between Feeley’s goals that Henderson picked up his injury which also meant Shipyard played the closing twenty minutes with ten men having used all five substitutes. B. Anthony and Feeley both struck the crossbar in the closing stages as Shippy remained keen to add to their tally.
Burntisland Shipyard: S. Costello; M. Miller (B. Trialist); A. Trialist (N. Feeley); M. James (G. Ross); I. Millar; S. Glancy; S. Keatings (J. Galloway); D. Anthony; B. Anthony, L. Henderson; R. Brown (S. Strang). Unused Sub: R. Connor.
Hawick RAU: S. Scott; D. Watson, R. Shepherd; J. Inglis; L. Swaney; S. Solley; S. Craig; J. Shankie; J. Nuttall; J. Ngoa; E. Gray. Subs: K. Brown; A. Antonnici; S. McFarlane; K. Murphy.
Referee: K. Brown.