Unlucky Shippy lose narrowly in local derby.
The Shipyard fell to a narrow defeat at Kirkcaldy on Saturday going down by two goals to one, however, the Shippy left Alex Penman Park somewhat aggrieved as every major decision seemed to go against them. When a 27th minute Shaun Keatings shot came back off the post Darrell Anthony was on hand to knock the loose ball home only for the celebrations to be cut short as the referee deemed him to be offside. Dazza had done what was expected of him and followed the shot in and was not offside when Keatsy let fly. A very disappointing decision to say the least. Dazza was involved in another flashpoint when he took an elbow to the face as he battled for the ball and to everyone’s surprise in the Shipyard camp Kirkcaldy’s Tyler McKenzie was only shown a yellow card when a red looked fully justified. The final unjust decision occurred late in the game when the Kirkcaldy defender appeared to more or less catch the ball in his own area, however, once again the referee seen it differently and waved play on. The decision caused fury in the Shipyard technical area and despite the referee being unaware of who said what he flashed a red card at Manager Dave Costello citing he was in charge of the technical area.
Nathan Feeley, having failed to recover from the ankle injury he sustained last week at Coldstream and Lee Henderson dropped out of the starting eleven and their places were taken by Dan Thomson and Ryan O’Donnell. In what surely must have been a very unique occasion the Shipyard listed two brothers as their goalkeepers in the matchday squad with Mikey Couser starting and younger brother Ryan on the bench.
The Shippy started on the front foot and Kirkcaldy keeper Dion Gear had to get down to push Sam Glancy’s drive around the post. The big keeper had his crossbar to thank a couple of minutes later as Thomson’s headed effort beat him but bounced back into play with the home defence scrambling the ball away. Couser’s first action came in the 21st minute when he tipped a header over the bar. At the other end Gear did well to hold Dazza’s deflected shot under pressure from Ben Anthony. Keatings showed great skill to engineer a sight of goal only to see his strike hit the post and as mentioned Dazza was deemed offside when he put the ball into the net. The Shipyard defence then did well to block a Jay Bridgeford attempt.
Couser did well to deny John Smith when he came off his line and did enough to force a mistake from the forward. Kirkcaldy took the lead in the 54th minute when a flowing move down the right was finished by Smith from close range. A Glancy free kick from wide on the left almost caught Gear out with the keeper relieved to see the ball drop onto the top of the net. Couser then pulled off a fantastic save as he dive full length to push a fiercely driven shot onto the post and away. Kirkcaldy doubled their lead with a minute remaining when substitute Stevie Jeffries drove the ball across Couser and into the corner of the net. As the game moved into added time, we then had the handball incident and the Shipyard continued to press and got a deserved goal when Iain Millar stole round the back and looped a header home from a Keatings free kick, however, there was not enough time left to search for an equaliser. Shippy manager Costy cut a frustrated figure after the match as he lamented “I really can’t believe some of these decisions that went against us today. You work hard to prepare your team for the game and you are left to wonder if it’s worth it when you see that.”
Next week we welcome Civil Service Strollers to the Shippy for an East of Scotland Qualifying Cup third round tie. Kick-off on Saturday is at 2.30pm.
Kirkcaldy & Dysart: D. Gear; O. Andrew; J. Bridgeford (T. Fleming); K. Johnston; R. Kinnaird (D. Falconer); R. McEwan; R. McGowan; T. McKenzie; J. Nouri; J. Smith (S. Jeffries); M. Wilkie. Unused Subs: L. Black; S. Kirkham; C. Auchterlonie.
Burntisland Shipyard: M. Couser; L. Ross; L. Bell; R. O’Donnell; I. Millar; S. Orrock (R. Crichton); S. Keatings; D. Anthony; B. Anthony; S. Glancy; D. Thomson (J. Galloway). Unused Subs: R. Couser; A. Brown; L. Henderson.
Referee: T. Martin.