Ferrier double seals cup victory
The Shipyard put last week’s disappointment behind them as they eased to a comfortable win against Kinross in the Scottish Brewers Cup at a misty Recreation Park. The Shipyard dominated for long spells and missed a hatful of chances before a double in the second half from Paul Ferrier sealed the win. Mark Hamilton missed out as he had not fully recovered from the knock he picked up last week at Strath. Therefore his 100% appearance record was gone, though he did take a place on the bench. Mark Brough returned to the starting line-up after recovering from his injury problems.
The Shipyard started well and had two opportunities in the first minute. Firstly, a timely tackle stopped Ferrier from pulling the trigger and from the resultant McCue corner, Ferrier’s powerful header flew narrowly over. Ferrier was causing the Kinross defence all sorts of problems and in the 4th minute he blasted over from just inside the box after latching on to a through ball. The deadlock was broken in the 7th minute when Gordon Grieve nodded in from close range after his initial effort had been blocked on the line. A Brough free-kick from 22yards was pushed away by Rushford at the expense of a fruitless corner. Ferrier had another good chance in the 21st minute when he broke away from the Kinross defence. His strong shot beat the keeper but was narrowly wide of the far post. From another McCue corner a Gray header was cleared off the line as the Shipyard continued to press for a second goal. In the 42nd minute a rare Kinross attack saw Brown tried his luck with an overhead kick, but although well struck it was straight at keeper Martin.
The Shipyard were shocked five minutes into the second half when Kinross drew level in bizarre circumstances. Martin rushed from his goal to clear the ball but only succeeded in hitting it against Craig Lindsay and the ball, to Martin’s horror, rebounded into the Shipyard net. Ferrier had a shot blocked in the 55th minute, but a minute later the Shipyard regained the lead and it was Paul Ferrier who nodded home McCue’s corner at the back post. Two minute later Ferrier burst into the Kinross area and was chopped to the ground for a blatant penalty. Mark Brough stepped up but saw his powerful shot excellently fisted over by Rushford. The Shipyard went 3 – 1 ahead in the 62nd minute when Paul Ferrier got into the box and from a tight angle fired the ball across Rushford and into the far corner. In the 65th minute a McCue free-kick was tipped over and from his corner Ferrier headed against the post. McCue then created an opportunity for himself when he wriggled along the by-line, but from a tight angle he could not beat Rushford at his near post. Russell and Ferrier both had chances in the latter stages that did not trouble the keeper. Kinross had a chance to get back into the game in the 78th minute but the ball was shot across the face of goal and no-one could get on the end of it. Russell and Ferrier linked superbly in the 86th minute when Russell rose well to nod the ball into Ferrier’s path, but sadly for Ferrier he blasted his shot just wide. After the match manager Whitehead said “I don’t think we ever looked like losing today. We created a whole host of chances and on another day we might have scored a few more”.
Teams: Burntisland Shipyard: Martin; McAndrew; Brough; Williams; Whyte; Wilson; Gray; Grieve; Russell (Tasker); Ferrier; McCue. Unused Subs: Cook; Hamilton; Dow.
Kinross: Rushford; Graham; Daeth; McLean; McAleavey; C.Lindsay; McIntyre; Mercer; Brown; McIvitt; Mackay. Subs: Burnett; Clark; Thackery; G.Lindsay; Hodge.
Referee: G. Farmer.