St Andrews United hosted Whitburn on a warm summer’s day at The Clayton Caravan Park Recreation Ground and both sides took to the field feeling confident of gathering the points. Indeed, Saints earned a couple of corners during the opening stages but the visitors opened the scoring in the sixth minute. A cross from the right found Andy Thomson unmarked near the back post and the Whitburn legend smashed a powerful shot past Logan Halliday in the home goal. Cammy Graham then saw an effort flagged for offside before Darren Liddell wasted a good opportunity yet the Whitburn players were beginning to dominate proceedings at that point. The visitors certainly enjoyed passing the ball on Recreation Park’s pristine surface and they moved further ahead in the tenth minute with a mirror-image of the first goal when a cross from the left was converted by an unmarked Liddell. The impressive Graham subsequently headed a great chance over Halliday’s crossbar but the hosts finally went on the attack in the 25th minute as James Collins missed the target by some distance. United manager Garry Wright thus decided to replace young James Hennessy with Kyle Sneddon on the half-hour mark yet the latter collected a yellow card within seconds of entering the fray for making a robust challenge in midfield.

 

Referee Jamie McCunnie also booked Ryan McManus a few moments later so the St Andrews United midfield lost some of its bite as the Whitburn boys tried hard to turn the screw. A great passing move released Liddell in the 34th minute but Halliday made an exceptional save to touch the former’s shot on to the bar. The resulting corner was cleared then Saints finally exerted some pressure at the other end of the park. Lewis Payne shot wide, following a strong solo run, before McManus tested Danny Farrell from a one-on-one situation. 18-year old Lewis Craik also went close with a curling effort yet his team headed for the changing rooms with a mountain to climb in the second half. As such, Wright wrung the chances during the interval with Owen Andrew and Luke Mahady replacing Collins and Ross Cunningham. However, Whitburn’s Graham continued to catch the eye at the start of the second period because he twice went close to scoring with a diving header as well as a good shot. Whitburn striker Thomson also tried his luck with a snap-shot in the 55th minute before Craik was denied by a last-ditch tackle at the other end following United’s best move of the game. Alas, the home team didn’t really look like troubling Farrell in the away goal and it took an acrobatic clearance from Dan Hall to stop Callum Hambrook from scoring Whitburn’s third goal the 70th minute.

 

Alex McCreadie then fired the ball over the bar after another surging run by Payne and Wright made further changes as Nathan Morrice and Reece Redpath stepped into midfield. Unfortunately, an attempt to replace Craik with Kieran Boundy was stopped by Mr McCunnie because St Andrews United had already used five replacements, though the home side was already beaten by that point. The result was put beyond doubt when Callum Bremner pounced on a loose ball in the 41st minute prior to finding the bottom right-hand corner of Halliday’s net with a composed finish. Whitburn therefore returned home with all three points and Darren Wilson’s team did enough to deserve the victory. On the other hand, Wright’s boys are still looking for a first win in the Premier Division this season but the manager was missing Lewis Sawers, Cammy Lumsden and Mikey Ness on this occasion, whilst Calum Brodie and Kyle Sneddon only made the bench.