Duns done by Big Millsy.
The Shipyard got back to winning ways against Duns after the midweek nightmare against Civil Service Strollers and in the process kept up their decent run of home form. The 1-0 scoreline did not fully reflect the story of the match as the Shippy missed some decent opportunities to increase the margin of victory. Any hope Duns had of repeating their 7-2 victory of a few weeks ago were never likely to materialise with the defensive problems the Shippy had that day well and truly behind them. Raymond Drury was forced to shuffle his pack again for this game with top scorer Kevin Masson and defender Ben Couper suspended, Graeme Haywood injured and Stephen Stark, Ewan Fotheringham and Adam Doig all unavailable. Youngster Josh Binnington stepped up from the U/17’s to take a place on the bench.
The Shippy should have been ahead within the opening few seconds when the Duns defender was short with a pass back which allowed Ewan Henderson to get onto the ball. The big strikers shot was saved by keeper Sean Robertson and when the loose ball fell to Craig Lowe the midfielder could not direct his effort on target. In the 13th minute an Iain Millar header from a corner was cleared off the line. The visitor’s first real attempt came in the 23rd minute when Luke Strangeways did well to get away from his marker and his curling shot from around 12 yards was not too far wide of the target. The Shippy took the lead four minutes before the interval when Millar scored with a close range header. A Mark James drive from the edge of the box was partially cleared to Scott Devaney and when his strike was blocked the ball looped towards big Millsy who stooped to head home.
Big Millsy scores the winner v Duns
The second half still saw the Shipyard creating most of the chances as Devaney saw a shot from the edge of the box gathered by Robertson and James went close twice within as many minutes as firstly he headed over a Henderson cross and then saw his powerful shot cleared off the line. Henderson spurned a good chance when James played him in but he shot wide from 15 yards. This was the big man’s last piece of action as he was subbed and Binnington was given his chance to shine in the last 20 minutes. The youngster made an immediate impact as he received a pass from Lowe, held off his marker but drove his shot just wide. Daniel Pattenden had a chance for Duns as the game moved into added time, however, his shot was straight at Shippy keeper Mark Rowbotham who gathered easily and ensured another clean sheet.
When Raymond spoke after the match he said “Today was a great result bearing in mind the scoreline the last time we played them. The whole team played well today and to be honest we never looked like conceding as we dug deep to get the result”. The manager had praise for his players as he added “There were some good individual performances and I believe the defence has grown in confidence since Mark’s arrival, also we were down to the bare bones today. I thought that young Josh did well when he came on for the last twenty minutes and I thank him for helping us out”.
The team is not back in action again until the 7th May when we travel to play Peebles Rovers at Whitestone Park, kick off 2.30pm.
Burntisland Shipyard: M. Rowbotham; P. Bell; R. McCann; I. Millar; G. McCann; M. James; S. Devaney ( E. Anderson); A. MacDonald; E. Henderson ( J. Binnington); C. Drury; C. Lowe.
Duns: S. Robertson; K. Wemyss; L. Walker; S. McHoul; K. Ainslie; G. Windram; K. Lee ( J. Lauder); M. Weatherburn; D. Pattenden; J. Rutherford ( M. Robinson); L. Strangeways.
Referee: B. Dickson.