Poor starts continue to haunt Shipyard
The Shipyard again made their chances of winning a match an almost impossible task, as like they did last week, when they allowed the opposition to take a three goal lead. Although they staged a decent fight back, it was not enough to take anything from the game. Paul Ferrier made a welcome return to the Shipyard side and new signing, former Herriot Watt player, Brendan Napier made his debut in place of the unavailable Liall Robertson.
The Shipyard had the better of the early exchanges as a Ferrier effort forced a good save from Lumsden in the Duns goal. Then Rutherford and Napier engineered but squandered an ideal opportunity. Duns took the lead on the 10 minute mark when a speculative shot by Devaney caught out Melia. From the restart, Ferrier had another opportunity but shot wide with Napier doing likewise a minute later. Burntisland continued to press and Lamont had an ideal chance from a corner but his weak header failed to find the target. Duns grabbed their second through Graham in the 22nd minute after some scrambled defending failed to clear the Burntisland lines and a further strike by Weatherburn four minutes later gave the home side a comfortable lead. Chances continued to fall to both sides it remained 3 – 0 at half-time.
Duns pressed after the restart, continuing to cause problems for a flat Burntisland defensive line that relied on off-side calls to halt the attacks. Lamont was replaced by Hamilton on 53 minutes.Paul Ferrier found himself in space a minute later and he made it 3 -1 with a good strike from outside the box. An injured Brough was replaced by Wilson just after the hour mark and following good play from Wilson and Ferrier on the left, the ball was delivered into the box where Brendan Napier scrambled the ball home. Things were looking brighter for the Shipyard with Duns beginning to feel the pressure, having lost a two goal lead the previous week.
Once again, it was a controversial refereeing decision that decided the direction of the result. Hamilton was yellow carded for what appeared to be an awkward collision in the 74th minute and Devaney placed the resultant free kick beyond Melia to settle the Duns nerves. The outcome of the game was settled beyond any doubt 5 minutes later when an offside call on Waddell was ignored and he stroked the ball home to make it 5-2. Burntisland continued in their Endeavour’s with both Ferrier and Napier creating openings but shooting wide before the final whistle.
The result left the normally optimistic Billy Whitehead dejected and wondering what is needed to turn things around for the Shipyard.
Teams: Duns: Lumsden, Bouchier, Stewart, Burns, Renton, Devaney, Brydon, Lee, Weatherburn, Waddell. Graham. Subs: Chisholm, McHoul, Oliver, Lauder.
Burntisland Shipyard: Melia, Brown, Brough (Hay), Gray, Whyte, Grubb (Wilson), Napier, Lamont (Hamilton), Ferrier, Rutherford, Dow.
Referee: P. Hanlon