East of Scotland Premier League – Saturday 5th March 2022
Penicuik Athletic 1 (Watson 47)
Blackburn United 2 (Allison 66, Heath 87)
Burnie started the game with trialist Chris Ashley in goal after a bit of a goalkeeping crisis with both Craig Saunders and Gavin King unavailable, and Hamilton loanee Jamie Smith recalled by his parent club without playing a game owing to their own injury problems.
It was the trialist who was involved in an early incident when he raced out his box for a ball but didn’t get there ahead of the Penicuik forward and took him down, and he was shown a yellow for his troubles. Liam Allison had the first chance of the game on 12 minutes when his shot was beaten away by Robert Watt in the Cuikie goal and Danny Campbell’s follow up was blocked. Like last week, it was turning into a game of few chances, but just before half time Liam Allison danced past two challenges before firing over from 20 yards, then Richie Hutton beat his marker on the right and drove into his box but his shot from a tight angle was saved by Watt.
The second half started with the home side immediately claiming the lead, a low ball in from the right caught the Burnie defence napping and Kieran Watson slid the ball home from the back of the 6 yard box. Penicuik got a boost from the early strike and pressured Blackburn in search of a second, with David Edwards shooting over from close range. Danny Campbell created the first chance of the half for Burnie on 52 minutes when a volley from the edge of the area flew directly into Watt’s arms.
However the equaliser came on 66 minutes when Richie Hutton broke away on the right wing and crossed into the box, Campbell got his head to it and flicked it onto Liam Allison who looped a header into the far corner of Watt’s net. The game was pretty even at this point and settled into a midfield battle.
With nine minutes left Dave Edwards was shown a second yellow for a late challenge on Liam Allison but immediately the 10 men created a chance to win the game when Nick Reid was sent clear one-on-one with Ashley but the trialist stood his ground and blocked the shot. However with three minutes of normal time remaining Burnie grabbed the winner. Callum Heath collected the ball inside his own half before feeding Liam Allison on the left, Heath continued his run forward and took a return pass before driving into the left hand edge of the box, holding off the attentions of Forbes before firing an angled shot across Watt into the far corner to claim all three points for the Burnie.
Penicuik Athletic: Robert Watt, Jack Furness, Lewis Collins (Cameron Dawson 87), Darrel Young, Reece Hope, David Edwards, Andrew Forbes, Kieran Watson, Aiden Walsh, Nichola Reid, Paul Tansey. Unused subs: Ben Weekes, Liam Robertson, Aaron Somerville, Liam O’Donnell.
Blackburn United: Chris Ashley, James Mildren (Lyall Cameron 67), Kyle McLung, Fergus Owens, Marcus Millar, Daryl Meikle, Richard Hutton, Dominic Kane (Michael Browne 46), Dany Campbell (Laurie Devine 74), Jack Garrad (Callum Heath 80), Liam Allison. Unused Subs: David Howe, Sam Thomas, Callum Macdonald.
Referee: Jordan Curran Assistants: Iain Gallacher, Scott Downie. Att:251