Seven up for slick Shipyard.
The Shipyard were in seventh heaven as they swept aside lowly Craigroyston in the autumn sunshine at Recreation Park on Saturday and in the process made it three league wins in a row following the recent victories over Ormiston. Despite being under strength, with suspension, injury and unavailability taking their toll, the Shippy were dominant for the most part and fully merited the 7-0 victory, indeed had it not been for some poor finishing and good goalkeeping it could have been a few more. The Shipyard looked rejuvenated and much more confident following last week’s big win at Ormiston. There was a Shipyard debut for Gavin Ross and big “Rocky” slotted into a totally revamped back four with Pete Bell and Dean Hunter coming in and Ryan O’Donnell switching to left back. Jordan Galloway moved forward to midfield and he revelled in his advanced roll netting twice and he was involved in a lot of the good stuff the Shipyard produced.
The hosts got off to a whirlwind start and were two goals ahead within the first five minutes. Sandy Strang collected a ball from Jordan Galloway and dispatched it beyond visiting keeper Reece Smail to notch his first goal of the season. It was 2-0 in the 5th minute when Top scorer Reece Brown continued his hot streak by calmly finishing after being put through one on one with Smail. The Shippy kept up the pressure and added a third through Benn Hutchison who latched onto the loose ball following Smail saving from Brown, not for the last time in the match, and he took the ball around the keeper and netted from close range. Brown was involved in almost everything and would have been disappointed not to take one of the two chances than came his way after 16 minutes. Brown again and Robbie Crawford both shot wide while Strang and Jordan Galloway were denied by Smail who was being kept extremely busy. Craigroyston had their first chance after 43 minutes which was blocked for a corner and then they brought out the best in Michael Gibb who produced an outstanding save to deny the visitors. The Shipyard immediately capitalised on this by scoring another goal on the stroke of half-time. Brown was the marksman again as he broke away and drove the ball into the corner of the net.
A Jonny Galloway free-kick was tipped onto the bar by Smail and when the ball was played back across the face of goal Brown missed a great chance at the back post. A minute later the Shipyard scored a fifth as Jordan Galloway capitalised on a mix-up in the Craigy defence and walked the ball into the net. Another calamitous moment for the visitor’s defence made it 6-0 when the defender could only turn a low cross into his own net with Smail stranded. Craigroyston could have pulled a goal back in the 54th minute but Michael South put the ball over the bar from a good position. Crawford hit the top of the bar after cutting in from the left, however, this was to be his last piece of action as he limped off with a hamstring injury soon after. Gibb made another save from South after a slip from new boy Ross. Smail denied Brown once again as the youngster looked for successive hat-tricks and Strang dragged shot a shot wide following good build up from Andy Watt and Jordan Galloway. Smail probably made his best stop of the match as he again foiled Brown who must have been wondering what he had to do to score again. Jordan Galloway completed the rout in the 90th minute when he had the simple task of converting at the back post after good work from subs Watt and Gary Dolan.
Manager Stuart Innes was obviously delighted after the match when he said “I am pleased with how things are going after a difficult start to the season and the boys are growing in confidence. My squad is getting stronger and I am delighted to get big Rocky in and hopefully I can get another signing soon.”
The Shipyard are in midweek action on Wednesday as they travel to Denny with Dunipace (KO 7.30pm) providing the opposition and on Saturday Perth is the destination as we visit Kinnoull (KO 2.30pm) for the first time.
Burntisland Shipyard: M. Gibb, Jor. Galloway, R. O’Donnell, D. Hunter, G. Ross, Jon. Galloway, R. Brown, S. Strang, P. Bell (A. Trialist), B. Hutchison (A. Watt), R. Crawford (G. Dolan). Unused Subs: A. Cooper, N. Harley, R. Connor.
Craigroyston: R. Smail, C. Mackintosh, S. Donaldson, W. Mitchell, Z. Nicholson, E. Watson, M. South, R. D’Angelo, M. Donoghue, M. Gray, T. Lacey. Subs: J. Sheerin, R. Brockelbank, J. Viera.
Referee: G. MacDonald.