Shippy sunk by dominant Thistle.
Despite the heroics of keeper Cammy Lambie the Shipyard were still on the end of a heavy defeat at the hands of Lothian Thistle HV at Saughton Enclosure on Saturday. What disappointed the Shipyard management team most was the nature of the goals that were conceded. Chris and Craig felt four of the goals were avoidable though did admit that but for Lambie’s performance Lothian would still have scored that amount of goals. The Shipyard squad was bolstered by the debuts of Conor Drury and Craig Hamilton and the appearance of trialist to Lee Halpin. Unfortunately, injury and the Christmas party season meant that several players were unavailable.
Lambie pulled off a couple of good saves in the early minutes while a Chris Maxwell effort at the other end was deflected wide for a corner. The hosts took the lead in the 19th minute when the Shippy needlessly gave away possession in their own half and when the ball was squared to James Guy he made no mistake from 15yards. The pressure continued and it was no surprise when Lothian made it two from a corner after 31 minutes though the Shippy defence really should have cleared the ball before Anthony Muir bundled the ball home from close range. Lambie pulled off another couple of good saves before he somewhat blotted his copybook by gifting Lothian their third. His poor kick out fell to Guy and he produced a fine finish to notch his second of the match. The Shipyard pulled a goal back just before half time after a persistent Halpin forced Lothian to cough up possession and when Donald Hyslop gathered the ball he produced a great finish to beat keeper Kevin Swain placing his strike over him and high into the net.
The second half continued in much the same vein as the home team dominated with the Shipyard defending resolutely, however, in the 56th minute Guy completed his hat-trick as he volleyed in at the back post. Guy then then scored his fourth in the 65th minute as he capitalised on another defensive mistake this time lobbing the ball over Lambie from the edge of the area. Jamie Devlin scored Lothians sixth in the 73rd minute when he tapped in from close range. The Shipyard stuck at it and almost got one back in the 78th minute but Swain pulled off a fine save to deny Halpin after he broke clear of the Lothian defence.
Lothian Thistle HV: K. Swain; D. Moore; S. Mackenzie; P. Crawford; G. Munro; A. Muir; W. Hare; J. Mungall; J. Guy; J. Devlin;L. O’Donnell.
Burntisland Shipyard: C. Lambie; D. Hyslop; C. Hamilton; K. Ford; C. McAleavey; C. Drury; R. Calder; A. Haddow; E. Fotheringham; L. Halpin; C. Maxwell.
Referee: P. Hanlon.