Late goals defeat Shipyard
The Shipyard completed their Qualifying Cup Group matches at Recreation Park with a 2 – 0 defeat to Tynecastle which saw the Edinburgh club top the group and the Shipyard finish fourth in the five team group with four points. Central defender Stuart Gray was absent which meant that not only was his defensive qualities missed, it also depleted the team’s goal threat as he is the current top goal scorer. However, Neish, Hatton, Grieve and Melia all returned to the squad.
Tynecastle started strongly and had the Shipyard defence under pressure from the outset. An early effort was just wide of goal and in the 12th minute Andy Martin did well inside the six yard box to block the ball. Then a minute later a ball from the right flashed across the face of the Shipyard goal with the Tynecastle forwards just out of reach. It took until the 25th minute for the Shipyard to impose themselves and they forced a series of corners that the Tynecastle defence struggled to deal with. Mark Brough produced a great tackle in his own box to deny a shot at goal as Tynecastle regained the initiative. Just after the half hour mark Newman in the Tynecastle goal looked unconvincing as he pushed a Neish drive round the post. Ross Weir then went close for Tynecastle as he showed great skill in the box to turn and shoot. However, it was straight at Martin who held the ball. Newman was called into action again when he made a similar save to earlier when he saved from Liall Robertson. Tynecastle almost took the lead on the stroke of half-time when Martin was caught in no man’s land and Jamie Butler lobbed the ball over him, only to see it drift wide of the far post.
The second half did not see as much goalmouth action as the first and the Shipyard were forced into a change after an hour when Robertson had to be replaced by Paul Wilson after taking a kick to his ankle. Mark Hamilton also replaced Steven McAndrew just a minute later. The afore mentioned Hamilton kept the Shipyard level when he cleared a John Williams header off the line in the 71st minute. Martin then saved at the feet of Devlin as Tynecastle looked to get ahead. Devlin was in the action again as he dragged his shot wide from a decent position. The Shipyard then had a couple of efforts as firstly Craig Hatton tried his luck with a spectacular overhead kick effort and then Shaun Lamont drove over from the edge of the box. The deadlock was finally broken in the 84th minute when Devlin gathered the ball in a suspiciously looking offside position, however, he was allowed to bear down on goal and he lashed the ball high into the net. Tynecastle almost got another two minutes later but the Shipyard defence managed to block the ball inside the six yard box. A second goal did come in the 89th minute when the unmarked Kevin Brown was on hand to nod the ball in at the back post after the ball was lobbed over Martin.
Manager Billy Whitehead was disappointed after the game bemoaning the decision that let Tynecastle take the lead saying “The guy looked clearly offside to me, however, it wasn’t given so we just have to get on with it. This group has been a learning curve for us and we have played well against the top teams. The Duns result might have been different had we not have had such a tiring match against Edinburgh City on the Wednesday. Although finishing fourth in the group, I still think we acquitted ourselves well and can take many positives from it. I am now looking forward to training during week as we prepare ourselves for the Scottish Cup match at Turriff match next week”.
BURNTISLAND SHIPYARD: MARTIN; BROWN; BROUGH; GRIEVE; WHYTE; McANDREW (HAMILTON); ROBERTSON (WILSON); LAMONT; NEISH (DRURY); HATTON; DOW. UNUSED SUBS: JOHNSTON; MELIA.
TYNECASTLE: NEWMAN; CADDOW; ANDERSON; SPEED; THOMSON; WILLIAMS; MORRISON; WEIR; DEVLIN; BROWN; BUTLER. SUBS: DEWAR; SALTON; LISTER; PETTIGREW; McDONALD.
REFEREE: B. COOPER