Red card pivotal in Shipyard defeat.
A mad five minutes turned this game on its head. With the Shippy 1-0 ahead and looking comfortable, they conceded two highly avoidable goals and saw Mark James red carded for a challenge in the middle of the park. Being a man down, particularly in the second half, didn’t trouble the Shipyard as they dominated proceedings and created some decent opportunities, however, they couldn’t find the finish to level the match at that stage. Of more concern to the Club was the serious looking knee injury suffered by Kearyn Hicks in the closing minutes, with the big defender in obvious pain as he was helped from the pitch. There was a home debut for keeper Cole Miller in an unchanged team from Saturday’s victory over Edinburgh United. The bench was strengthened with the return of Ben Anthony, Sam Glancy, Cammy Lewis, Evan Stanfield and CJ Thomson.
The Shippy took the lead in the 11th minute when Kris Murphy capitalised on some hesitancy in the visitor’s defence and the big striker calmly rolled the ball beyond Dalkeith keeper Jamie Newman. The Shipyard might have been two ahead in the 24th minute when Newman came way outside his area, however, Dan Thomson couldn’t get his long range attempt on target with the keeper breathing a huge sigh of relief at the let off. Thistle equalised in the 29th minute when a corner was not headed clear and Miller Ritchie was on hand to head the ball home from around six yards out. The Shippy were dealt a second blow as Dalkeith scored again just two minutes later. It was all too easy for the Thistle man to work his way down the right hand side and Nathan Stokes knocked the cross home to give his side the lead. It was a triple whammy for the Shippy as they were reduced to ten men. Jamesy challenged for the ball in the centre circle and certainly got something on it, however, the referee deemed that his follow through was reckless and brandished a red card. It was a tough one as many thought a sending off was harsh while some thought it was merited. The Shippy were nearly on level terms just before the interval when Michael Gibb’s snapshot went narrowly wide of the target.
Manager Lee Richardson put on Sam Glancy after the break to bolster the centre of midfield and the diminutive midfielder made an impression as he got to grips with things. The Dalkeith defence had to be on their toes in the 56th minute as they blocked three shots in quick succession as the Shippy pushed them back. Substitute Ben Anthony shot straight at the keeper and D. Thomson turned his marker one way then the other before watching his shot drift just off target. Shortly after this Hicks collapsed to the ground in agony after he had cleared the ball up the park. It was immediately apparent it was serious and after a few minutes he was replaced by Evan Stanfield. This seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Shipyard and they conceded two goals in the dying minutes that did not reflect how the match had panned out. Cammy Leslie cushioned a volley in at the back post and he netted again when another cross to the back post was headed back across the goals where he was on hand to bundle the ball home from close range.
We are on our travels on Saturday (20/04/2024) with Riccarton the destination as we face Edinburgh College at the Oriam. Kick off for this match is at 3.00pm.
Burntisland Shipyard: C. Miller; D. Turner; M. Robertson; E. Bauld; K. Hicks (E. Stanfield); H. Kay (CJ. Thomson); K. Beard (S. Glancy); M. James; K. Murphy (B. Anthony); D. Thomson; M. Gibb.
Dalkeith Thistle: J. Newman; R. Aitchison; R. Clelland; M. Lennie; M. Ritchie; M. Brown; J. Mackie; D. McTernan; A. Faulds; E. Grieve; N. Stokes. Subs: M. Gould; C. Leslie; C. Malone; A. McNeil; C. Young.
Referee: T. Martin.