2010
Eastvale hosted Burntisland Shipyard on a glorious Thursday evening for the first round of the Fence and Deck Cup. The management had the unusual, but welcomed problem of too many players being available and had the difficulty of leaving out Young Mitchell and Stuart McLiesh from the squad with the likes of Jamie allan and Andy Kirk only making the bench.
The game kicked off a little later than scheduled due to some stragglers from both ranks which is to be expected during this midweek stage of the campaign. From the kick-off it was Burntisland that had a few early chances with one just going over the bar. After this flurry of attack Eastvale settled down and started to apply their own pressure which caused some major cracks in the shipyards defence. Eastvale were awarded corner after corner and it was only time until someone would finish one of the great balls into the box. Connolly dispatched a great cross from Kennedy with an even better header into the bottom corner to put the vale one up. Another move soon after saw Eck Douglas beat the offside trap and sprinted through on goal with only the goalkeeper to beat. Eck struck the ball low and the keeper seemed to make a good save but douglas sprinted on to tap in the rebound. Burntisland were dealt another blow when their influential ‘Cook’ had to be subbed with an injury. However, this bad news seemed to spur the Shipyard back into life and managed to get back into the game after some very dodgy goalkeeping from Gardner allowed big Myles Allan to header from no more than five yards out pulling the deficit back to one. On the stroke of half-time Eastvale extended their lead with a poachers goal from Forrester. Ryan Kennedy hit a solid free-kick from about twenty-five yards out – down to the keepers right but he was unable to hold onto it, Forrester latched onto the rebound to make it 3-1 at half time.
Eastvale started the second half brightly with Miller going agonisingly close after a long ball beat the defence finding Miller one on one with the goalie sliding it past both goalkeeper and post. Not long after though Vale extended their lead again with some good play down the left wing, Eck douglas squaring a ball to Calum Connolly for his second of the night. With about 15 minutes to go the home side wrapped things up with more fine play down the left, a good front post cross was met by Millers head to score his first for the club.
Final Score: Eastvale 5-1 Burntisland Shipyard.
Eastvale: Gardner; Kerr; Murrie (Westwood); Kennedy; Winn; Thomson (Allan); Connolly; Forrester; Miller (Kirk); Armit; Douglas.
Subs not used: Laing; Coull
