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Burntisland Shipyard 0-1 Musselburgh Athletic

Athletic out-muscle Shipyard in narrow win.

Pete Bell returned to starting line-up

The Shipyard produced a much better performance against Musselburgh Athletic on Wednesday night but again they had no points to show for their efforts as the visitors recorded a narrow win. It was a frustrating night for the Shippy players as again the decisions seemed to go against them, however, they can take a lot of positives from a game where their effort and commitment could not be questioned. Pete Bell, Dean Anderson and Rab Kinnaird returned to the squad having missed the weekend match against Dunipace.

The earlier kick-off turned out to be a wise decision given the overhead conditions as it was quite dark come the scheduled finishing time. Spare a thought though for the Musselburgh fans that arrived late due to the usual traffic congestion at the Queensferry crossing.

The Shipyard created the first chance after six minutes but Johnny Galloway saw his curling shot drift wide. Meanwhile at the other end Gary Nicholson headed over then Ryan Adamson saved well from Matthew Lynch following a corner. David Maskrey failed to hit the target when he was presented with a chance in the 23rd minute. The Shippy trialist had to come off injured after 25 minutes and he was replaced by Reece Bernard. A well worked corner from the Shipyard presented a chance to Tam Graham but he headed over from a decent position. A loud Shipyard shout for a Penalty when Jordan Galloway was pushed over in the box was dismissed by the referee, nevertheless, Musselburgh continued to dominate proceedings and they came very close on the stroke of half-time as Sam Glancy did well to hack the ball off the line. The ball broke to a Musselburgh player but the referee was not fooled by his theatrical dive and booked him for his troubles. The high pressing game the Shipyard were playing certainly upset the visitor’s rhythm and manager Grant Brough must have been pleased by the endeavour his players had shown.

The second half was only five minutes old when Conor Thomson went down under an innocuous challenge in the home area and this time the referee did somewhat harshly point to the spot, however, many would say justice was done when John McManus blasted the ball wide. The visitors broke the deadlock on the hour mark when the ball fell kindly for McManus inside the box and he made amends for his penalty miss as he placed his shot just inside the post giving Adamson no chance. The Shippy players stuck to their task, continuing to close down space and limit the visitor’s opportunities, who as the match wore on were unsure whether to stick or twist. A fine Glancy cross set up a chance for Reece Bernard but the substitute could not direct his effort on target. In the closing minutes Musselburgh were happy to wind down the clock and see out time and take the points back over the bridge.

Burntisland Shipyard: R. Adamson, P. Bell (C. Simpson)., S. Glancy, D. Anderson, T. Graham, S. Strang, Jor. Galloway, R. Kinnaird, R. Brown (B. Trialist), Jon. Galloway, A. Trialist (R. Bernard). Unused Sub: R. Connor.

Musselburgh Athletic: D. Cornet, M. Lynch, J. McManus, M. Moffat, G. Cherrie, C. Thomson, M. King, D. Maskrey, M. Deland, G. Nicholson, J. Gillan. Subs: B. Whyte, B. Hogg, L. Gregory, N. Evans, A. Tufail.

Referee: J. Curran.