Shipyard march on in Fife Cup

The Shipyard turned in their best display of the season to see off St Monans in the second round of the Fife Amateur Cup at Recreation Park. With the usual selection problems due to suspension and unavailability, manager Whitehead’s team more or less picked itself.
On a cold and wet afternoon it took the Shipyard only 48 seconds to break the deadlock when Josh Williams was on hand to turn in a rebound off the St Monans keeper Wishart. The lead was to be short-lived when a long ball over the top of the Shipyard defence was gathered by the St Monans forward who drew keeper Chalmers, then passed to his team mate who rolled the ball into the net. In the eighth minute Johnston had a good run and saw his shot saved, Small was next to try his luck and also had his shot saved. After 12 minutes the Shipyard regained the lead with an identical goal to the first with Josh Williams again on target. Johnston beat the offside trap in the 26th minute but, his effort was way off target. The rest of the first half became scrappy and tousy with the ref working hard to keep a lid on things.
The Shipyard started the second half strongly and Leishman was just off target with a low shot. In the 48th minute St Monans had a rare chance, however, the free header was way off target. A minute later Brown’s free-kick for the Shipyard was held at the second attempt by Wishart. St Monans had an effort well saved by Chalmers before the Shipyard increased their lead in the 54th minute when Neil Johnston latched onto a through ball, rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the net. The Shipyard were in control now and in the 71st minute a corner from the left was cleared off the line, before Leishman put his shot from Johnston’s cut back over the bar. It was Shaun Leishman who tied the game up for the Shipyard in the 74th minute when his shot from the edge of the box found the corner of the net. In 81 minutes it was 5 – 1, this time Tam Williams was the scorer, heading home from close range after a corner. Steven Duncan rounded off the scoring in the 88th minute with a fine individual goal, gathering the ball on the right he bore in on goal rounded the keeper before scoring from a tight angle.
Manager Billy Whitehead was delighted after the game with both the result and performance, he said “some of the players missing today might find it difficult to get back into the side. To turn in such a fine performance in those difficult conditions was a fantastic effort by all concerned”.
Teams: Burntisland Shipyard: Chalmers; McAndrew; Drummond(Henderson); Cook; T. Williams; Small; Leishman; Brown; J. Williams; Johnston(Duncan); Grieve(McCrae). Unused Sub: Houston.
St Monans Swallows: Greg Wishart; McKenzie; Paterson; Fleming; McGilvary; R. Smith; Jardine; S Smith; Thomson; Gary Wishart; Roberts. Subs: Ireland; McColl; Khan; Black.
Referee: R. Cooper.