Shipyard frustrated as decisions go against them.
The Shipyard left Yarrow Park with at least the point they deserved thanks to Kevin Masson’s late double, but were baffled by some of the decisions that went against them which ultimately denied them all three points. The visitors had two very strong penalty claims turned down in the second half and in the first Selkirk were fortunate that the referee took no action against Kenny Munro after his very poor tackle. Blair Grubb returned to the starting eleven after serving his suspension and Lee Henderson was promoted from the bench replacing the unavailable Anesu Tabengwa and a trialist respectively. Gordon Grieve, Brendan Napier and Martin Nedialkov were still out through a variety of reasons.
With the strong wind behind them Selkirk took the initiative from the off and Mikey Couser had to be sharp to gather a loose ball that bounced off an attacking head. A low cross from the right found no takers and Jamie Gibson shot wide as the Souters looked for the opener. A Masson free-kick was way off target before Shipyard linesman Andy MacDougall showed fantastic skill on the sidelines when stuck his flag up as he controlled a wayward pass. The Shipyard took the lead in the 43rd minute when Henderson pressurised the home defence into a mistake and when the ball broke to Grubb he drilled an angled shot into the net from 16yards. That lead was to last barely a minute when Callum Peoples found space at the edge of the box and fired a low shot into the bottom corner.
The Shipyard had a disastrous start to the second half when after Couser saved well with his legs the ball fell to Gibson who made no mistake from inside the area. The visitors had to replace the injured Grubb with Alex Peoples and went on to have a good spell of pressure as Masson shot over and then astonishingly had a penalty appeal waved away when Dale Robertson was bundled over as he tried to latch on to a through ball. Pete Bell shot straight at keeper John Dodds and in the 55th minute another strong penalty claim was turned down when Masson flicked the ball round his marker and was then tripped as he moved onto the ball. Against the run of play Selkirk increased their lead when Jason Inglis headed in a free-kick at the back post. The Shipyard were not out of the game and continued to create chances with Peoples, Robertson and Masson linking well with the latter’s shot drifting over the bar. Masson pulled a goal back in the 74th minute when he shot home from 16yards and although the keeper got a hand to the ball he could not keep it out. The Shipyard kept looking for the leveller and it duly arrived in the 89th minute when Masson got his head to a Stevie Connor long throw and the ball looped over the giant Dodds and into the net. A minute later the Shipyard almost stunned Yarrow Park when Dodds pulled off a superb save as he finger tipped a Stuart Innes header round the post for a corner. With the game deep in added time a Selkirk corner was headed narrowly wide in what was the final action of the match.
Manager Myles Allan was naturally disappointed not to win the match but reasoned after the game “We’ve had a lot of matches in the last couple of months where we thought that our performances merited more than we got. Today we were definitely not at our best but showed a bit of character to get back in the match when it didn’t look so good. After the disappointments in previous matches, we’ve maybe earned a bit of luck”. When asked about some decisions that went against his team Myles chose his words carefully and said “I’m convinced that we had two strong claims for penalties and their keeper pulled off a wonder save in the last couple of minutes to stop us winning. Our play might not have merited three points but it just shows the small margins between one point and three points in this league.
Teams: Selkirk: Dodds; Stephen; Munro; Milven; Pritchard; Johnson; Holness; Inglis; Gibson; Gay; C. Peoples (Bolton). Unused Subs: McManus & Butters.
Burntisland Shipyard: Couser; Crombie; Connor; Bridges; McKay; Bell; Grubb (A. Peoples); Innes; Masson; Robertson; Henderson. Unused Subs: Cunningham & McCrindle.
Referee: I. McIntyre.