The Shipyard kicked off their pre-season campaign with a comfortable 5-1 over Links United at Broughton High School in Edinburgh. The plan was to field a different team in each half but with a late call off it meant in effect there were nine substitutions at half-time. Several new signings made their debuts at some stage and also a handful of trialists had their chance to shine.
It was a trialist who opened the scoring for the Shipyard in the 17th minute with a fine finish after receiving a superb pass from Brendan Napier. Renato Sartarello doubled the Shipyard lead in the 36th minute and again it was Napier who was the architect with another fine pass. Links United were far from out of it and should have had a least one goal but the trialist Shipyard keeper saved a poorly hit penalty after Blair Smart was adjudged to have committed a foul. Both teams missed some decent chances as the half came to a close. The Shipyard had some opportunities at the start of the second half but failed to add to their tally before Links pulled a goal back as the player was allowed to waltz through the Shipyard defence and finish neatly. Craig Lowe restored the two goal advantage for the visitors when he fired home from the edge of the box and a few minutes later a Lee Henderson cross cum shot deceived the links keeper and found the top corner. Kevin Masson rounded off the scoring late on as he made it 5-1 when he turned in a Henderson cross. The fine weather saw Shipyard linesman Jim Thomson stripped to the waist and there were some quizzical looks as he handed over the flag so he could apply sun tan lotion to his naked torso.
Asked about his thoughts on the proceedings manager Myles Allan commented “It was good to be able to give 20 players a decent run out. It’s important not to place too much relevance to pre-season results and I was more interested in starting to see relationships built up on the park. There was some nice football played at times and nobody let themselves down. We’ve got a wee break now before our next match so it’s a chance to move our fitness levels up a bit in training”.