Cup exit for Shippy.
The Shipyard were knocked out of the King Cup after they went down 1-0 to Armadale Thistle at Recreation Park. A goal in the 67th minute from Tomas Murphy was all that separated the teams in a game of few chances, though no-one could fault the teams for their endeavour as both were fully committed to the battle. The Shippy missed the drive of Darrell Anthony in the middle of the park as he missed out through illness, and Cammy Lewis was also under the weather and he too was forced to sit out the match. Mark James and Ben Anthony returned to the starting eleven with Darrell and Shaun Keatings dropping out.
The Shipyard almost got off to a dream start with less than a minute on the clock as a Sam Glancy drive was well saved at the expense of a corner. Glancy nearly had another attempt on goal following a good run by Anthony, however, the Dale defence quickly closed the Shippy man down and blocked his shot. Scott Costello was called into action in the 18th minute when he had to dive low to his left to save an angled drive. Craig Watt was in the right place to clear the ball off the line after a corner was delivered into the box and the headed attempt beat Costello.
The big Shippy keeper made a similar save to his earlier one in the 50th minute and although the loose ball was turned into the net the player was clearly offside. The Shipyard were dealt a blow in the 65th minute when Sandy Strang was sent off. Why he was shown a yellow card for his challenge was anyone’s guess but having been correctly cautioned earlier on, he had to go. It only took Armadale two minutes to capitalise on the extra man as Murphy drove forward a fired in a shot that flashed passed Costello at his near post. The Shippy spurned a great chance to equalise with seven minutes remaining as a mishit Anthony shot fell to Iain Millar but from around six yards the big man couldn’t get any power into his right foot attempt and Armadale keeper Andrew Murphy gathered easily.
Manager Dave Costello spoke after the match and said “There was not a lot in it and obviously Sandy’s red card changed things. It was a decision that baffled me to be honest, with my counterpart from Armadale agreeing it was never a booking.” He went on to add “I thought we played well, never giving them too many sights of goal with Jamesy and Big Millzy on their game, while Sam and Rooney were tenacious in the middle of the park. We just didn’t create enough chances for it to go our way.”
Next Saturday we face Kennoway Star Hearts in a hugely vital league match here in Burntisland with the kick-off being at 2.30pm.
Burntisland Shipyard: S. Costello; L. Ross (R. MacAuley0; R. O’Donnell; M. James; I. Millar; C. Watt; D. Thomson (S. Keatings); S. Glancy; B. Anthony; J. Wilson; S. Strang. Unused Subs: R. Connor; A. Brown; D. Pierce.
Armadale Thistle: A. Murphy; D. Jacobs; T. Murphy; S. Watson; S. Hunter; JJ. Henderson; S. McLeod; R. MacLennan; R. Feeney; C. Strickland; J. Fairley. Subs: M. Allan; S. Dalziel; G. Forrest; S. Horn; C. Leiper; R. MacIndoe; L. McGuigan.
Referee: R. Bowie.