Duns and dusted.
The Shipyard put last week’s poor showing firmly behind them as they eased to a comfortable two nil win against Duns at Berwickshire High School, a third victory against the Borderers this season. Whatever Myles said to the players over the previous seven days seemed to have worked as everyone gave their all in what was an all round good team performance. Blair Smart and Jamie Fyfe dropped out of the starting eleven from last week to be replaced by Gavin Bridges and Adam Doig.
A twenty five yard effort from Duns in the first couple of minutes was the only clear shot at goal in the opening twenty as both teams struggled to come to terms with the wind and bobbly pitch. In the 22nd minute the Shipyard had a bit of luck, that has been missing for the last few weeks, when an angled shot from Michael Stewart hit the inside of the post with Pete Bell getting back to clear the ball off the line. Five minutes later the visitors took the lead after good work from Kevin Masson set up Doig. His pass found Keith Buckley who was able to hold off the defender and flick the ball beyond Gary Renton in the Duns goal. Just after the half hour mark Mikey Couser had to be sharp off his line to boot the ball clear from the edge of his box. However, after that the Shipyard enjoyed a good spell of pressure with firstly Doig bursting clear of the home defence only for Renton to deny him with his legs. Dale Robertson then fired a free-kick over the bar before he was involved again as he expertly controlled a fine pass from Andy MacDonald on his chest but was denied by a great tackle as he was about to pull the trigger. Masson was next to try his luck with a free-kick and his low curling effort was not too far away from finding the bottom corner. Steven Shennan drove forward for Duns just before the break but his shot from the edge of the box sailed high over Couser’s cross bar.
The Shipyard could and probably should have doubled their lead in the first minute of the second half as Doig easily beat his marker but his powerful drive smashed off the bar. Robertson following up could not get his first time shot on target with the ball going about a yard over. In the 65th minute substitute Jamie Fyfe did well to find space in the box and with plenty of time he seemed to be caught in two minds as he blasted the ball across the box and out for a throw in, with a pass to his strike partner looking the better option. Duns raced to the other end and Couser did well to push a ball that took bobble just in front of him round the post at the expense of a corner. From the resultant set piece a shot from the edge of the box was charged down by the Shipyard defence. Doig and Buckley had been working well together with Myles opting to play a four four two formation and they linked up in the 73rd minute with Buckley seeing his curling effort rise over the bar. Couser had to make a good save from Duns substitute Martyn Tait as the home team looked to get something out of the match but their hopes were dashed in the 86th minute when a Masson corner fell at the feet of centre back Alan Clark and he had the simple task of knocking the ball in from a couple of yards for a rare goal. The Shipyard finished on the front foot with Fyfe blasting over and fellow sub Jason McCrindle getting a nose bleed as he found himself free at the edge of the Duns box.
All in all it was a good day for the Shipyard and the manager was in a lot happier a mood when he spoke after the match saying “What a difference a week makes! Everything that we have spoken about and worked on since the final whistle last week were put into practice this afternoon.
We asked the guys to show some character today and match Duns for work rate and I think we did that. Although Duns had a couple of chances, I don’t think we could be grudged the three points. As well as the two that we did score, we had three or four other good chances so, in my eyes, it was a deserved win”. Myles was keen to emphasise the importance of putting in the effort to win matches by adding “The foundation for the performance was hard work and there will be no excuse for anything less going forward. We have a good group of players who are capable of climbing up the table but we have been guilty of not working hard enough in previous games. That’s not something that can be levelled at them today though hopefully they can now appreciate the benefit of hard work. I can’t praise them highly enough for today and I will be delighted to be saying the same thing next week”.
Teams: Duns: G. Renton; M. Weatherburn; J. Ainslie; S. McHoul; E. Sherry (R. Burns); S. McGregor; K. Lee (G. Waddell); M. Stewart; S. Shennan (M. Tait); M. Robinson; L. Walker. Unused Subs: J. Brydon & D. Chisholm.
Burntisland Shipyard: M. Couser; G. Bridges; P. Bell; A. MacDonald (J. Fyfe); A. Clark; K. Masson; D. Robertson; C. Lowe; K. Buckley; A. Doig (J. McCrindle); C. Samson (G. Blyth). Unused Subs: S. Blake & J. Mushet.
Referee: E. Cairns.