Depleted Shippy slip to narrow defeat.
The Shipyard went down 1-0 to Coldstream thanks to a Miguel Freire goal nine minutes from time at Home Park on Saturday. In truth, the home team deserved their win as they created many more chances than the Shipyard, with the Shippy struggling to put the Coldstream defence under any concerted pressure. It was a much changed team from Wednesday night with no fewer than seven players dropping out either through injury or unavailability, leaving the manager with a major selection dilemma. On a brighter note, there was a start for Cammy Lewis who has overcame his dislocated knee injury and would have benefitted from the 65 minutes he had on the pitch. Ben Anthony also continued his comeback from injury when he replaced Cammy. There was a Shipyard debut from the bench as young trialist Rian MacDougall came on for the final few minutes and he can be pleased with his contribution. Mikey Couser, Ryan O’Donnell, Ellis McQuade, Mark James, Kai Beard and Kris Murphy all joined Lewis in the starting eleven.
Thomas Hume headed against the post in the 4th minute following a Regan Graham corner and after this the Shippy began to settle and impose themselves on the game. Couser was called into action twice in a minute as he saved with his legs from Graham before pushing away a driven effort from the lefthand side of the box. The Shipyard spurned a glorious chance to take the lead when Lewis burst through, however, he attempted to round Elliot Turnbull in the Coldstream goals, rather than shoot, and he was cautioned for apparent simulation as he went past the keeper. Just before half-time Couser was in action again as he saved from Kieran Ingram.
Kyle Wood and Ingram both headed over at the start of the second half as the home team started strongly. On the hour mark Dan Thomson saw his shot deflected into the keeper’s hands as the game opened up and became a more even end to end contest. The deadlock was finally broken in the 81st minute when Freire gave his team the lead with an angled strike that seemed to bounce awkwardly for Couser and found the corner of the net.
Lee Richardson spoke after the match said “I’ve been told that the referee never awarded us a free kick until the 41st minute which I find astonishing given the challenges that my players endured. What made it worse for me was that similar challenges from us seemed to merit a yellow card, which was very frustrating to say the least.” He went on to add “To say the squad was stretched to the limit was an understatement, nonetheless, all the boys that came in done very well and can be pleased with their contributions.”
We travel south again this week (16/03/2024) as we cross the border to face Tweedmouth Rangers at Shielfield Stadium in Berwick upon Tweed, with the match kicking off at 2.30pm. The Club will be running a coach to the match with details being published on our social media channels.
Coldstream: E. Turnbull; J. Whitehead; I. Gay; M. Fox; K. Ingram; B. Wright; M. Freire; R. Graham; K. Wood; B. Paterson; T. Hume. Subs: T. Grey; K. Ross; K. Lee; J. Storm.
Burntisland Shipyard: M. Couser; R. O’Donnell; E. McQuade; M. Gibb; M. James; S. Glancy; K. Beard; CJ. Thomson (R. MacDougall); K. Murphy; C. Lewis (B. Anthony); D. Thomson. Unused Subs: O. Wardrop; C. Watson; F. Lockhart.
Referee: J. Leslie.