Shipyard finish season on a high with away win.
The Shipyard’s season finished where it started off way back on 29th July last year with a trip over the border to face Tweedmouth Rangers. The target was to collect all three points to secure an eighth-place finish and that was achieved following a 3-1 victory, despite an unconvincing performance against the league’s bottom club. It was a somewhat depleted squad that travelled with the usual array of suspensions, injuries and unavailability taking their toll. On the plus side there were welcome returns for Callum McAulay, Johnny Galloway and Tom Graham.
The Shippy thought they were ahead as early as the third minute, however, John Martin’s strike was ruled out for offside and this was not to be the last offside decision that would have a bearing on the match. Jordan Galloway saw a shot deflected for a corner and Martin headed over from a McAulay set piece as the Shippy dominated the early exchanges. The Shipyard made the breakthrough on the 15th minute mark in hugely controversial circumstances as Martin looked yards offside when played through the middle of the hosts defence, undeterred the Shippy’s top scorer played to the whistle and rounded keeper John Patterson before rolling the ball into the net. It required a smart clearance from stopgap defender Sandy Strang to keep his team ahead as Tweedmouth had their first real opportunity. A jinking run from Sean Johnstone opened up the Rangers defence but his shot was blocked and the loose ball bounced off Jordan Galloway before he had time to react and the danger was cleared. The Shippy doubled their lead in the 37th minute after Jor Galloway set up Martin and when his shot was blocked Johnstone was on hand at the back post to lash the ball high into the net.
Sean Johnstone netted the second Shippy goal.
Tweedmouth had a great chance early in the second half and very much in line with previous incidents Lee Dodd looked offside, however, Ryan Adamson stood firm and blocked the strikers attempt. The home team were on top at this stage and Strang was on hand again to clear off the line when a goal looked inevitable. Graham headed a McAulay corner into the hands of Patterson before Tweedmouth got back into the match. A corner from the right dropped inside the Shipyard six-yard box and in the ensuing scramble it appeared that Kieran Cromarty poked the ball over the line. Martin had another “goal” ruled out for offside a couple of minutes before Michael Robinson left his team with an uphill struggle after he took exception to a Scott Powrie challenge and kicked out at the Shipyard defender leaving the referee with no option but to show him a red card. Martin sealed it for the Shippy in the 76th minute when he cut in from the left-hand side and smashed an unstoppable shot beyond Patterson. The last few minutes saw the Shipyard make three changes as the game petered out without any further incident of note.
So, the Shipyard finished in 8th place which was a decent effort given the start to the season and the amount of personnel changes that took place throughout the season as manager Grant Brough looked to shape his squad. When he spoke to www.burntislandshipyard.co.uk he said “For me today’s game was a typical end of season affair, frustrating to watch and very similar to last week’s game at Peebles, though the main difference being that we came away with the three points. This match will never be remembered as a classic and given the fact we only had eleven fit players available, plus a 16-year-old, the assistant manager and goalkeeping coach on the bench, I’m happy to go back up the road with the points and eighth place secured.”
Tweedmouth Rangers: J. Patterson, R. McLeod, D. Boyne, K. Cromarty, R. Graham, G. Robertson, M. Robinson, S. Drummond, R. Davison (R. Aitchison), L. Dodd (K. Murray), M. Inglis.
Burntisland Shipyard: R. Adamson (R. Connor), R. Kinnaird (S. Innes), P. Bell, S. Strang, S. Powrie (S. Brough), C. McAulay, Jor. Galloway, Jon. Galloway, T. Graham, J. Martin, S. Johnstone.
Referee: G. Calder.