Shippy lose to title challengers.
The Shipyard squad had a more familiar look about it for this rescheduled match against high flying Lothian Thistle HV, played at the home of Easthouses Lily, due to the ongoing pitch issues at Saughton Enclosure. The return of several players did give manager Grant Brough the chance to rest key players that were carrying knocks ahead of next week’s Fife Cup Final.
Although the Lothian players have faced a gruelling schedule of late due to a series of postponements it didn’t show as they claimed a 4-0 win over the Shipyard, the same result as last night and similar to the Eyemouth match all the goals came in the first half. Once again, the way some of the goals were conceded would have been a concern to Brough especially given the few chances the hosts created during the first half. The manager said “I didn’t think it was a 4-0 game but the fact that Lothian were clinical and capitalised on the majority of our mistakes was crucial. Once we cut out the individual errors we will be a lot more competitive against teams of the quality we faced tonight. Also, I think it’s worth adding that the referee did us no favours whatsoever tonight and some of the cautions my players received were baffling”. He then spoke of the upcoming fixtures saying “We still have targets to achieve in the league and of course we have the cup final on Tuesday night to look forward to. With that game in mind, it influenced my team selection tonight and it will do so again when we face Peebles on Saturday”.
Johnny Galloway went closest for the Shippy.
The Shipyard found themselves behind early on when Willis Hare broke clear and found the net with a low finish into the corner of the net. The Shippy were playing some tidy stuff and forced a fruitless corner after good build up. Samuel Nhamburo missed a chance in the 14th minute but three minutes later the hosts doubled their lead when Keith Murray latched onto a loose ball in the box and tucked it home. The Shipyard had an appeal for a penalty turned down in the 26th minute when it appeared that a cross was handled as it came into the area. Lothian scored a third in the 35th minute when Shippy keeper Ryan Adamson was caught in no man’s land and Hare scored his second with a neat lob over the keeper. The game was as good as done on the stroke of half-time when the Shipyard failed to fully clear a corner and Hare scored his third with a swerving shot that left Adamson helpless.
The Shipyard were denied a foothold in the match by a spectacular save from Kevin Swain in the 51st minute when he got a fingertip to Johnny Galloway’s thunderous strike and tipped the ball onto the bar. There were very few clear chances in the second half as both teams made full use of their bench with the respective managers obviously having their eye on other games.
Lothian Thistle HV: K. Swain, D. Moore, L. O’Donnell, P. Crawford, A. Shala, A. Muir, W. Hare (J. Mungall), C. McGregor, K. Murray (S. Wringe), S. Nhamburo, R. Hutchison. Unused Subs: K. Brown, L. Swanson, C. Simpson, J. Guy.
Burntisland Shipyard: R. Adamson, R. O’Donnell, B. Breen (S. Powrie), D. Anderson, P. Bell, S. Strang, R. Brown, B. Hamilton (S. Glancy), R. Kinnaird (C. Anderson), Jon. Galloway, C. McAulay. Unused Subs: S. Johnstone & Jor. Galloway.
Referee: P. Hanlon.