Fine comeback as the Shipyard progress in Cup.
The Shipyard got back to winning ways in this Kingdom Challenge Cup 2nd round tie at Treaton Park, Star. This Cup Tie remarkably finished the same scoreline as the recent league match between the sides at Recreation Park. Even more remarkable was that the scoring pattern was the same, in that Star were again 2 – 0 up, before the Shipyard scored six unanswered goals. As promised Billy made changes to the team with McAndrew, Cook and S.Hamilton dropping out, to be replaced with Hutt, T.Williams and Johnston.
It looked like the Shipyard were going to keep their poor run going as it took them only 10 seconds to fall behind. Losing possession from kick off the ball found its way to Bowers who calmly stroked the ball into the corner of the net. In the 5th minute McCue worked his way into the box, but he saw his shot held by keeper McCourt at the near post. In the eighth minute Grieve and Johnston linked well and the latter saw his shot blocked at the expense of a corner. In the 11th minute Hutt played a great pass to Johnston who beat his man, but saw his shot blocked. The same pair combined again to set up McCue who shot over from the edge of the box. Star went 2 – 0 ahead in the 18th minute through Logie. With the Shipyard defence appealing for offside Logie lobbed the ball over the advancing Chalmers and the retreating Whyte could not keep the ball out of the net. The Shipyard were back in the game in the 27th minute when Josh Williams cut in from the left and unleashed a drive from all of 25yards that flew into the net. It was all square in the 36th minute after Hutt made ground down the left-hand side and squared to Lee Small who made no mistake from 6yards. Johnston had the chance to put the Shipyard ahead a minute later after being put clean through, but McCourt done well to take the ball off his toes. It was all the Shipyard now and they were 3 – 2 ahead in the 42nd minute when J. Williams surged down the left and crossed to the unmarked Shaun Leishman whose shot from 10 yards found the net.
Small headed wide a J. Williams cross in the 47th minute but two minutes later the Shipyard scored a fourth. Grieve played in McCue and when the keeper could not hold his shot, Neil Johnston was on hand to knock the ball over the line. In the 56th minute McCue broke down the left and played in a great pass to Sub S. Hamilton whose first time effort was brilliantly touched onto the bar by McCourt, before the ball was cleared. J. Williams was involved in almost everything from the Shipyard and it was his cross that set up S. Hamilton for a header which the keeper held. It was turning into the Josh Williams show as he cut inside from the left and crashed a shot across the keeper into the far corner to put the Shipyard 5 – 2 ahead. In the 66th minute the Shipyard scored a sixth goal with Small doing the work on the right and setting up Shaun Leishman for his second goal with an easy tap-in at the back post. J. Williams set up S. Hamilton for a shot that was blocked, then J. Williams played a one two with Leishman and had his shot held by McCourt. The Shipyard continued to totally dominate proceedings in the closing stages with J.Williams, S.Hamilton, Grieve and finally Cook all having attempts at goal. After the poor results midweek manager Billy Whitehead was delighted to get back to winning ways and said” it’s not the first time that we have started like that, though I was confident that we would recover, however, we still lost bad goals and I have to address that. I thought we scored some good goals today, with them coming from all areas and different players.
Teams: Star Hearts: McCourt; Ness; Livingstone; Mitchell; Brown; Fell; Logie; Watson; Bowers; McConnell; Falconer. Subs: Weir; Laurie; Eccles.
Burntisland Shipyard: Chalmers; Grieve; Hutt; T. Williams; Whyte; Small; M. Hamilton; Leishman (Cook); McCue (Dow); Johnston (S. Hamilton); J. Williams. Unused subs: McAndrew; Houston.
Referee: J. Ross.