Poor defending costs the Shipyard dear.
Although after losing to Eyemouth last week, the mood in the Shipyard camp was a confident one as they travelled to face Kelso United, as the performance against Eyemouth was way better than the scoreline suggested. Manager Myles Allan had to replace the unavailable Dale Robertson, Stuart Innes and Alex Peoples with Robbie Cunningham, Gordon Grieve and the suspension free Stephen Connor.
The Shipyard started the match well and a Napier cross flew across the face of goal. A spell of pressure saw the Shipyard win a succession of corners the proved fruitless and then a fine angled drive from Connor was parried away by Scott Dowie in the Kelso goals. Napier was giving the Kelso defence plenty to think about and after a jinking run his cross cum shot was not far away from the back post. Remarkably Kelso took the lead in their first foray into the shipyard’s box when Steven Tait headed home when unmarked at a corner. Kelso saw an effort blocked by the Shipyard defence but it was the visitors who continued to dominate and even before half-time must have run up double figures in corners. Mikey Couser in the Shipyard goals had to look lively as Kelso broke up the park shortly before the break.
Jordan Crombie had to replace the injured Blair Grubb just a few minutes into the second half and within seconds the Shipyard were almost level when Tabengwa turned smartly and smashed a shot just wide. The Shipyard continued to look suspect at set pieces and another header from a corner was cleared off the line. Connor showed great skill inside the Kelso box to engineer himself a shooting chance and Dowie had to pull off a great save to deny him. The set piece problem hit the Shipyard again in the 73rd minute when this time Chris Black was unmarked at a free kick and easily headed home. A Henderson cross found the head of Tabengwa but he did not trouble the home keeper before Kelso scored again when Couser did well to block an angled drive but substitute Stuart Harker was on hand to knock the ball into the unguarded net. Tabengwa had another attempt at goal before the Shipyard, and Napier in particular, got the goal they deserved. Napier took possession and moved into the box then hit a well placed shot in off the post for his team’s consolation goal.
Myles Allan did not mince his words after the match when he said “I was really disappointed with the team today. It’s all very well looking good between the two 18 yard boxes but when there’s no real hunger and desire to get yourself in a position to score or to put your body on the line to prevent a goal against, then all the work in the middle of the pitch is wasted. Conceding 2 goals from free headers is criminal and that is what killed us. We’ve asked the players to play a certain style of football and to their credit they’re doing that pretty well. However, that cannot be done at the expense of the basics. That’s clearly what we’ll need to work on over the coming weeks”.
Kelso United: Dowie; McCutcheon; Angus; G. McNulty; D. McNulty; Tait (Gillie); McClure; Black; Burnett; Mabon (Harker); Lauder (Webb);
Burntisland Shipyard: Couser; Grubb (Crombie); Grieve; Bridges; McKay; Bell; Cunningham (McCrindle); Henderson; Connor; Napier; Tabengwa.
Referee: G. MacVicar.