Shipyard shoot themselves in the foot.
It was not a great day for the Shipyard as firstly, new signing Kevin Masson hobbled off with a knee injury with barely ten minutes on the clock. Secondly, Brendan Napier received a straight red card for a poor challenge and to cap it all Peebles snatched an undeserved winner deep into added time. Blair Grubb was still sidelined with his groin injury and other new signing Martin Nedialkov was unavailable due to prior commitments.
The first action saw Peebles keeper Scott Gordon parry away a dangerous Dale Robertson cross before Masson injured himself in a challenge for the ball. The Shipyard went close in the 16th minute when Robertson’s speculative hooked shot from the edge of the box hit the bar with Gordon well beaten. Robertson was in the thick of the action again in the 20th minute, though this time Gordon was equal to the task and produced a good save diving low to his right. Peebles had their first spell of pressure with Craig Edgar testing Mikey Couser on a couple of occasions though not unduly troubling him. Peebles then claimed for a penalty in the 33rd minute though the referee saw nothing untoward and waved play on, much to the anger of the Peebles sidelines. Brendan Napier then missed a glorious chance to give his side the lead when Stephen Connor played him through. With just the keeper to beat and the goal at his mercy his shot was too close to Gordon and he was able to deflect the ball away for a corner. Just before half-time Connor had the ball in the Peebles net but he was deemed to be offside when he received a pass from Robertson.
The Shipyard deservedly took the lead in the 57th minute when Connor burst down the left and saw his shot pushed away but the ball fell kindly for Robertson and he crashed the ball into the roof of the net. The start of the second half had seen the injured tally rise as first Shaun Ford of Peebles had to be helped from the pitch closely followed by his teammate Greg Young, both of whom picked up leg injuries. In between those injuries Robertson had another chance for the Shipyard when he latched onto a bouncing ball but his shot did not carry the power to beat Gordon. The Shipyard were shocked in the 69th minute when a punt up the park caught out the home defence and Edgar was on hand to lob the loose ball over the advancing Couser and into the net. This rattled the home side and matters got worse when Napier was shown a straight red card for a poor challenge in the middle of the park. Peebles now had the initiative as Duncan Muir shot narrowly wide and Michael MacKenzie pulled a fine save out of Couser. With fifteen minutes remaining Peebles were also reduced to ten men when Andrew Williamson was ordered off. Surprisingly, he would only have been yellow carded for his raised elbow challenge on Connor, the referee could not have seen the punch to the kidneys as well. However, he talked himself into a second yellow and had to go. Edgar dribbled along the Shipyard by-line but the defence was able to clear and Muir saw a shot from wide on the right hit the outside of the post as Peebles looked for a winner. At the other end from a corner Craig McKay, at the back post, smashed in a volley that the keeper beat away. Couser saved with his legs from Muir as Peebles broke quickly and deep into added time substitute Jamie Adamson found himself free in the inside right channel and he steered his shot beyond the diving Couser to grab the winner. There was still time for the Shipyard to create another chance and again Gordon was up to the task as he saved Lee Henderson’s powerful drive from ten yards.
Manager Myles Allan was in no mood to mince his words as he said “There is no point in sugar coating it. The players let themselves down by losing focus and getting dragged into situations they didn’t need to get involved in. Ultimately a lack of focus and indiscipline cost us the game against a team we are more than capable of beating”.
Teams: Burntisland Shipyard: Couser; Bridges; Connor; Innes; McKay; Bell (Grieve); Peoples; Henderson; Masson (Trialist); Napier; Robertson. Unused Subs: Cunningham; Tabengwa; McCrindle.
Peebles Rovers: Gordon; Ford (Adamson); Hunter; Young (Manson); Williamson; Cairns; Muir; MacKenzie; Edgar; Manson; Nwadze (Noble).
Referee: P. Crosbie.