No goals in uninspring stalemate.
Thankfully, Recreation Park survived storm Eowyn relatively unscathed, therefore, it was game on as Harthill Royal travelled to Burntisland for the very first time. The big disappointment was that the teams served up a poor goalless match, with very little in the way of clear-cut chances, in front of a decent attendance, with 94 spectators inside the ground. With Ryan Couser still feeling his injury Kacper Okupnik returned in goals and he could be very happy with what was a solid performance. Mark James replaced the unavailable Blair Kerr in the only other change from last week’s win over Vale of Leithen.
The visitors started the brighter and held the upper hand early on though they never really troubled Okupnik in the Shipyard goals. Shippy passed up the best chance of the contest so far when a well worked short corner found the head of Iain Millar, however, big Millzy would be disappointed not to get his header on target. A Jordan Hunter cross was met by Mikey Gibb, but the Shipyard’s top goal scorer couldn’t direct his effort on target either. That was the last chance of a very drab first half with neither keeper having a difficult save to make.
Five minutes into the second half a deep Hunter cross found the inrushing Cammy Bell at the back post; however, the young midfielder’s volley flew wide. Harthill created a good opportunity that had Okupnik making a save though the referee blew for offside in any case. A Harthill corner fell to Oliver Jessimer but the big striker hooked his attempt over. Okupnik came to the edge of his area to clear potential danger following a long ball played through the middle of the Shipyard defence. Gibby had a chance when he burst clear and rounded keeper Thomson as he came out, however, a well-timed tackle denied him as he was about to pull the trigger. Both teams pushed looking for a winner in the closing stages and both Hunter and substitute Kierren Ritchie saw shots blocked while Harthill had the ball around the Shippy box but could not engineer a shooting opportunity.
Manager Lee Richardson cut a frustrated figure when he spoke after the match as he said “I am very disappointed today. All the good things we did in the attacking third last week were missing today. We just didn’t create nearly enough chances as our final pass or delivery into the box was not good enough. Defensively we were terrific with Kacper, Millzy and Jamesy all solid.”
With no match next week, our next competitive game is away to Dalkeith Thistle on Saturday 8th February 2025.
Burntisland Shipyard: K. Okupnik; D. Brockie; E. Jowitt; M. Robertson; I. Millar; D. McBay; C. Bell (K. Ritchie 85’); A. McAndrew (J. Galloway 60’); J. Hunter; M. James; M. Gibb. Unused Subs: K. Beard; C. McBay; K. Crielly.
Harthill Royal: D. Thomson; A. Cross (C. Morrison 65’); G. Bonnes; G. Moore; L. Kelly; J. McNie; E. Buchanan (K. Kalala); L. Paton; O. Jessimer (M. Casey 65’); F. Hall; D. Strickland (D. Campbell 80’). Unused Subs: P. Gilbowski; P. Lauk; L. Mulvanny.
Referee: A. Simmonds.