Burntisland Shipyard out of Scottish Cup inside 15 minutes at Lochee

Shipyard were bowing out of the William Hill Scottish Cup before it had barely started following a shocking start to this first preliminary round match as they conceded three highly avoidable goals in the first 15 minutes.

To make matters worse the Shippy were passing up glorious chances at the other end to either equalise or pull a goal back during a frenetic first half.

The visitors enjoyed good spells of pressure throughout the 90 minutes but were given a lesson in finishing as Lochee, particularly in the first half, were clinical.

The final 20 minutes were played out in farcical conditions as torrential rain throughout the second half made areas of the pitch unplayable, but it would have taken a brave man to abandon the match with the home team 7-0 up.

The referee’s advice not to pass the ball into the sodden areas of the pitch raised a few eyebrows.

With only 30 seconds on the clock the Shipyard defence misjudged a long diagonal ball and it opened up for Reece Ritchie to give his team the lead.

Shippy should have been level in the fifth minute when presented with a glorious chance, however, Scott Hynd failed to hit the target with a header following a corner.

A fierce Robbie Crawford strike after eight minutes saw Lochee keeper Jordan Millar produce a great save but a minute later the hosts doubled their lead as they broke quickly and Danny Cavanagh finished from inside the box.

Again, the Shipyard pushed forward with Dean Hunter heading over from a corner and shortly after Josh Binnington dragged his effort across the face of the goal.

Following a Shipyard corner Lochee broke up the park and showed how it should be done as Danny Millar made it three.

With 15 minutes played to all intents and purposes the Shipyard were out of the cup.

Nonetheless, the Shippy never threw the towel in and Crawford missed an absolute sitter when he headed wide with 21 minutes on the clock.

Shipyard were forced into a change when Benn Hutchison limped off to be replaced by Jason Finlay.

Michael Gibb made his first save of note in the 37th minute when he got down low to gather the ball.

Shipyard fell asleep shortly before half-time as Lochee were able to work a short corner and when the ball was delivered it was Kevin Buchan’s header that made it 4-0.

The Shipyard management team decided to use all their substitute options at the break by replacing Sandy Strang and Scott Hynd with Connor McQuade and Reece Brown.

The match restarted in torrential rain with the crowd scurrying for cover to save themselves from being drenched.

Brown had a chance straight after the break which the keeper saved but the same pattern continued as the hosts went up the park and scored again.

Gibb would have been disappointed with his defenders because after making a good save only Ryan Blair reacted and he knocked the ball home to make it 5-0.

Buchan scored a sixth soon after and at this point everyone in the Shipyard camp were fearing the worst.

The Lochee defence were determined to keep a clean sheet as they blocked everything that was fired at them and anything that did get passed them was gathered by Millar.

Lochee were starting to create a lot of chances as the Shippy defence began to tire and it was no surprise when Ritchie scored number seven on the hour mark.

The pitch was starting to deteriorate rapidly, particularly in the Shipyard 18-yard box, though the match officials did not show, openly at least, any signs of concern.

Thankfully nobody was injured as a result of the pitch conditions.

Brown produced two great strikes that forced Lochee keeper Millar into full stretch saves and the Shippy’s Millar headed one of the corners over in what was the last attempt at goal.

Shipyard can be happy with the amount of opportunities created but disappointed not to convert at least two of them and possibly more.

That being said the amount of chances that Lochee had and the number of soft goals conceded was alarming.

Burntisland Shipyard: M. Gibb, S. Strang (C. McQuade), D. Hunter, I. Millar, R. Lennie, R. Crawford, Jon. Galloway, B. Hutchison (J. Finlay), S. Hynd (R. Brown).

Unused Subs: Jor. Galloway, R. O’Donnell, A. Watt, A. Cooper.

Referee: S. Kirkland.