Stoneyburn were the visitors back to East Shore for a quick turnaround of fixtures following the early August humbling at Beechwood Park, but Burgh were out to prove a point – and that they certainly did.

Burgh got off to the perfect start as Finn Bannerman beat the offside trap to latch on to Rhys Sneddon’s ball forward to round the advancing keeper on the edge of the box. As the ball took to the left hand side of the area and the keeper quickly retreating back to goal, his ball into the box found Lyall Brown to powerfully volley home in the 5th minute.

It got better ten minutes later as Ryan Daly’s long throw into the Stoneyburn box saw keeper MacIndoe appear to be obstructed by his own defender as he jumped to claim with Callum Roughead. As the keeper fumbled the ball and tried to reclaim it, the Burgh defender was wrestled to the ground as MacIndoe looked to recover possession. The referee had no mistake but to point to the spot.

Daly took the penalty responsibilities and he made no mistake firing to MacIndoe’s left to double Burgh’s lead in the 15th minute.

On 21 minutes Daly’s long throws were causing more problems in the Fulshie defence as three defenders jumped with Roughead for the header with the ball falling for Blair Campbell whose first time shot deflected off the back of Neilson and just over for a corner.

The visitors first serious chance came in the 23rd minute when a good move down the right saw two chances blocked by Calum Lownie and Roughead hacked clear the danger.

Campbell then had two chances inside a minute with the first from a corner on the left being cut back by Roughead for the Burgh skipper to nearly loop a shot from the edge of the area over MacIndoe’s head in the 26th minute. Then moments later a Sneddon free kick floated into the box saw Campbell head low towards the far post for MacIndoe to parry and dive on the loose ball.

Ben Duffield was called into action twice before half time when Nelson got in behind Cammy Taylor from a long throw to cut inside but the Burgh keeper was on hand to narrow the angle and pounce on the ball before the Stoneyburn no.7 could shoot.

Then on 44 minutes Brady cleverly slid in O’Hara through on goal but Duffield was again out quickly to force the corner with a good block with his feet from close range.

After a strong half-time talking to, the visitors came out for the second half strongly and Brady headed goalwards from a corner in the 47th minute but Duffield got behind it to save.

Duffield nearly got himself into trouble moments later when he took too much time and was nearly dispossessed. But his panicked clearance fell to Mackay and ended with Furness firing a low shot that the keeper was on hand to redeem himself.

Burgh were unfortunate not to make it 3-0 in the 67th minute with Cammy Newsome’s interception finding Brown who flicked forward to Daly running towards goal. The Burgh no.7 played a neat one-two with Campbell before slotting past MacIndoe but the wideman was adjudged fractionally offside for the return pass.

Moments later Brown again beat the Stoneyburn offside trap from a Roughead ball forward, but after getting the better of Sharp, the defender recovered enough to get a block to the striker’s shot and force the corner.

With time running out and the visitors desperately trying to get back into the game, Mackay laid off a ball to young sub Saunders to roll a low bouncing shot across goal and off the far post with his team mate on hand to fire a low shot across the face of goal in the 73rd minute.

Burgh brought on Kieran Twaddell for the final 12 minutes as a fresh pair of legs up front to replace Brown who had put in a hard shift and the Burgh sub nearly made an instant impact when he was just beaten to a deep Daly cross by MacIndoe.

On 87 minutes Twaddell did beat MacIndoe to a high ball into the box by Kian Beattie, but the striker’s header looped over the advancing keeper and come back off the crossbar with Ethan Stark unable to divert the rebound into the net under pressure.

Moments later superb determination from right-back Lownie bombing forward on the wing won possession saw his cross find Twaddell towards the far post, but the Burgh sub couldn’t quite get enough power on his shot to fire past MacIndoe.

Stoneyburn caused a few nervy moments after winning a 90th minute penalty when Duffield was adjudged to have fouled Waddell whilst jumping to punch clear a cross. McConnell stepped up to pull a late consolation from the spot.

It was another much-improved and organised performance from Newburgh and made amends for the recent meeting between the two sides.

Man of the Match: It was again a joint-decision of keeper Ben Duffield and midfielder Cammy Newsome, who put in his typical gritty and excellent performance.