Burgh took an unusual break from Cup action with a return to League duties with the visit of Ormiston Primrose to East Shore Park. Both sides were looking to make an impression and make up ground in the race to return to the Second Division.
In the 8th minute, a pass that typified the maturity and talent of 17-year old Owen McCallion played a carefully crafted ball through to Mitchell Sharp who couldn’t quite make a clean connection to trouble McPheators in the ‘Ormi’ goal.
Rhys Sneddon also continued his great progress with a beautiful long-range pass to send Sharp away, with the ball then falling to Logan Whyte who forced the keeper to push his powerful shot behind for a corner on 11 minutes.
Ormiston weren’t without chances of their own and in the 20th minute a great ball from the right by Maxwell fell nicely for Moffat to meet on the bounce but unable to keep it low enough to trouble Jack Foster and it went just over.
McLaren also had a couple of good chances to give the visitors the lead in the opening 45 minutes but both times put his effort just wide of the post.
In the 43rd minute Burgh opened the scoring with a move that was started by Euan Morris, who then joined the play to pick up the half clearance to send over the pin-point cross from the right for Logan Whyte to rise highest to bury a header past McPheators from close range.
In the 58th minute Burgh continued their good play and the visitors were having difficulties with Sneddon’s range of passing as he played a long first-time ball forward which saw Sharp time his run perfectly to beat the offside trap. The Burgh striker was too fast for the Ormi defence as he ran in on goal unchecked and wrong footed the keeper to roll home for 2-0.
At this stage it looked Burgh’s game to throw away, but the Class of ’24 seem to be made of different stuff and that was never on the cards. In the 71st minute a high ball towards the edge of the Ormiston penalty area from Cammy Newsome saw hesitation between keeper and defence and Sharp was in like a shot to lob an effort goalwards but sadly not quite on target.
On 76 minutes Foster was called into action when he appeared to be unsighted through a crowd of bodies to spring to his right to tip a low drive behind for a corner.
The visitors’ frustration boiled over in the 78th minute when a crude challenge by Grandison took out McCallion, who continues to make excellent progress. The referee was only yards away and had no hesitation to correctly show the red card.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Ormiston set up a few nervy moments when Laidlaw finished from close range in the 84th minute after a ball from wide left eluded everybody as it curled towards goal.
The game was put to bed in the 89th minute, though. A clearance from Foster from his own area found the head of Sharp who beat the defender and then ran on past the advancing keeper outside his area to roll home into an empty net from about 12 yards out.
It was a great win for Burgh with a performance that left you feeling there were still further gears to move up as the team are showing signs of gelling and understanding each other. It was also a win that moved Burgh into midtable and continue a largely good run of recent form.
Next Saturday Burgh return to Cup action with an extremely difficult, but eye-watering tie against Lowland League Civil Service Strollers at East Shore Park (kick off 2.30pm).
Man of the Match: Mitchell Sharp, fought off a number of good performances, particularly from McCallion, Newsome, Morris and Stevenson.
