Slow start proves costly for Shipyard.
The Shipyard left Brownlands Park empty handed, mainly thanks to a poor first half performance and some baffling refereeing decisions. The two goals conceded in the opening twenty five minutes were highly avoidable, with the second coming just after Jack Wilson saw his penalty saved by Luncarty keeper Craig Hepburn. The Shippy competed far better in the second half but decisions went against them with the red card to keeper Scott Costello the worst of all. There was one change to the starting eleven from last week with Shaun Keatings returning to replace the suspended Ben Anthony. There was a blow for the Shippy as sub Cammy Lewis got injured in the warm up and was withdrawn.
After an even opening few minutes the home team took the lead with their first sight of goal in the 13th minute and it a poor goal to concede as a ball was allowed to be delivered across the six yard box where Ben Scarborough got in front of his marker and headed beyond Costello. The Shipyard were presented with a golden opportunity to get back into the match when they were awarded a penalty with twenty minutes on the clock. Luncarty were struggling to clear their lines and when the ball broke to Mark James just inside the box the referee deemed, he was fouled and pointed to the spot. There weren’t too many complaints from the home team. Big Jack hit a powerful shot, however, Hepburn guessed right and pulled off a good save although the ball was at a good height for him. Within a couple of minutes Luncarty doubled their lead through Scarborough again when he shot home from inside the box when the Shippy failed to clear the danger. Costello was forced into three more decent saves in the remainder of the first half with the Shipyard only having a Darrell Anthony strike that was held by Hepburn.
Manager Dave Costello made two personnel changes at half-time and also made a change of shape as he switched to a back three. Raymond Crichton and Scott Orrock replaced Rhys Wardlaw and Liam Bell. The changes allowed the Shippy to get more into the game and Luncarty were getting frustrated, none more so than Danny Dobie whose elbow into Keatings’ face was not spotted by the ref but he decided to book both players anyway. Costello replaced Keatsy with Sandy Strang as he didn’t want to see has man get a red card. The Shippy were pushing to get a goal back and Strang’s header was not too far away. Any hope of a late fightback was squashed with four minutes remaining when Costello was controversially sent off. Big Scott raced from his goal, to just outside the corner of his area where he collided with the Luncarty forward. The first thing that was clear was that the challenge was outside the box. The ball was heading towards the touchline as was the Luncarty man and there were two Shipyard defenders in the middle of the box. The referee’s decision to flash a red card astonished at least the Shipyard contingent inside the ground. Lewis Ross was sacrificed to allow Ryan Connor to take over between the posts though the veteran keeper was not unduly troubled during the closing minutes.
Next week (19/11/2022) we welcome Armadale Thistle to Recreation Park for a King Cup tie. Kick-off is at 2.30pm.
Luncarty: C. Hepburn; J. Yates; D. Walker; D. Dobie; L. Mackie; C. Mitchell; K. Dewar; B. Scarborough; A. Carlon; O. Hamilton; R. Davies. Subs: L. Strong; B. English; N. McNicol; K. Green; C. Anton; C. Kirkcaldy; L. Kearney.
Burntisland Shipyard: S. Costello; D. Thomson (A. Brown); L. Bell (R. Crichton); L. Bell (R. Connor); I. Millar; M. James; S. Keatings (S. Strang); D. Anthony; R. Wardlaw (S. Orrock); J. Wilson; S. Glancy. Unused sub: D. Pierce.
Referee: N. Crawford.