The Shipyard bowed out of the Challenge Cup after gifting the Strollers a two goal half time lead at a sunny Recreation Park. Although the Shipyard produced a better second half performance the damage was done and a third goal for the Strollers near the end finished the tie. With still some injuries and unavailability, manager Whitehead was forced to use the 16 players available to him. On a brighter note Steven McAndrew made his long awaited debut for the club as a second half sub, after recovering from his broken ankle.
The early exchanges produced nothing of note, although the Strollers were the more dominant team. Chalmers was first called into action after 20 minutes to gather a long through ball under pressure from Calvey. The Strollers took the lead after 27 minutes when the unmarked Bobby Gay saw his miss hit shot wrong foot Chalmers and trundle into the corner of the net. A minute later it was 2 – 0 when from a quickly taken free-kick, Craig Dickson was afforded all the time in the world to gather the ball, turn and shoot home from 12 yards. Calvey missed an absolute sitter in 37 minutes, when again unmarked his free header somehow went wide. On the stroke of half time Johnston just failed to get a good touch on a headed pass back to the Strollers keeper.
The Shipyard started the second half on the attack and Hamilton saw his effort go narrowly wide. In the 47th minute Johnston had a chance at the back post when the ball dropped to him but, his first time shot went over the bar, substitute McNeill saw his 57th minute shot also go over the bar. The Shipyard were given a chance to get back into the game when Strollers No 3 Raeburn was sent off for use of an elbow on Johnston. The first effort on goal for the Strollers in the second half came in the 71st minute when a shot flashed wide of the far post. In 75 minutes Johnston had another chance but this time his shot was held by Burnside in the Civil Service goal. In 82 minutes Strollers wrapped up the game when the Shipyard were caught up the park and Calvey ran onto a through ball and slotted it past Chalmers and into the net. In what was a disappointing result, the good news was the return of McAndrew and the form he showed, plus the return to the club of Michael Brown.
Teams: Burntisland Shipyard: Chalmers; Brown(McAndrew); Drummond(Mcneill); Whyte; Cook; Ferguson; McCue; Hamilton; J. Williams; Johnston; Tasker(Grieve). Unused Subs: Couper; Houston.
Civil Service Strollers: Burnside; Robertson; Raeburn; Barbirou; Hogarth; Gay; Wheelan; Calvey; Dickson; Forbes; Newby. Subs: Wilson; Burgess; Dillon.
Referee: K. Maskell.