Musselburgh stay up after dramatic day

Musselburgh ATHLETIC earned the three points they needed to retain their Super League status, with all the talking points coming in an explosive first eight minutes of the match.

After only two minutes the home side were awarded a penalty when Burgh keeper Ally Adams fouled Barry Smith in the box and was yellow carded, but the keeper redeemed himself when he pulled of a fine save from Darren Wright’s spot-kick.

Then three minutes later the home side were reduced to ten men when Barry Smith was shown a straight red card following an incident with Paul Tansey. And on eight minutes Michael McKenna was fouled by Stewart Haddow in the box with the referee awarding a penalty and sending off the full-back. Mattie King calmly converted the spot kick to put Musselburgh ahead.

The visitors, with the advantage in numbers, created many chances and the home keeper Stuart Hall pulled off a string of fine saves to keep his side in the match.

But with ten minutes remaining Mattie King got his and Musselburgh’s second when he shot low past the keeper after good work by Paul Tansey and with five minutes left Chris Gordon sealed the points when he was on hand to fire the ball home from six yards.

Hill of Beath: Hall, Haddow, Sealey, McCann, Dair, Smart, Wright, Gemmell, Smith, Hay, Reid. Subs: Renton, Hepburn, Ford, Campbell, Donnelly, Ingles.

Musselburgh Athletic: Adams, Burns, Logan, Shand, Hamilton, Gordon, Murray, Currie, King, McKenna, Tansey. Subs: Russell, Gibson, Miller, Ramage.