Lugar Boswell T 0
Clydebank 4
West of Scotland Cup (1st Round)

Match Report

The scoreline suggests a comfortable afternoon at Rosebank Park, but a spirited Lugar side made the Bankies work for their win. The ref also helped in no small measure, but he can be excused to a degree as the lack of assistant referees made his job near impossible.

The Bankies got off to a perfect start scoring after only six minutes. The lively Cunningham was sent clear on the left. He possibly should have scored himself but the keeper gets the credit for the initial block. Unfortunately for him the ball spun high into the air for the waiting Shelvey who simply nodded into the net.

In truth, the Bankies should have been out of sight in the first half. Pearson missed an utter sitter from close range. Shelvey was just as bad missing a double chance, one of which came off the bar. A header was also cleared off the line from a corner kick.

Lugar had a few long range efforts, but never really threatened so they would have felt quite good going into the break only a goal behind. This was reinforced with their second half attitude. They came out with renewed vigour, and for the first twenty minutes were much the better side forcing a few corners, and in their best chance bringing out a top class save from Josh Lumsden, who turned a blistering shot over the bar. At this stage, Clydebank knew they were in a game

In the next piece of action, John Cunningham should really have put the game out of the home side's reach. The ball came to him around ten yards out, and with the keeper out of position, he unbelievably put it wide of the empty goal.

The real turning point for the Bankies came with the introduction of Ryan Deas for the ineffectual Reece Pearson. I've been critical of Deas this season but he made all the difference from the moment he came on, as the Bankies began to retake control of the midfield.

Cunningham atoned for his earlier miss when he scored a debut goal with just over fifteen minutes remaining. This was the first time the ref got pelters from the home support as the move started from what they perceived was an offside position. Without linesman this really is a hard call for the ref on marginal cases. The keeper saved the initial shot on goal from Deas but Cunningham followed up from close range.

Fellow debutant Higgins also got on the scoresheet, this time from the penalty spot. He was put through on the keeper, who duly felled him as he tried to round him. The keeper was red carded, but it has to be said that the incident happened yards outside the box. Again, a linesman would have corrected the ref's admittedly poor decision. Higgins made no mistake with a confident spot kick.

Deas rounded off the scoring near the end with a well taken strike. Again, the home fans were screaming for offside, but as has been noted before, the ref is in a difficult situation.

So, after a month of no games, the Bankies earned themselves a useful result. It is good to see that McAnespie has cleared out most of his failed signings and sought to replace them. It would have been for him easy to go with what he had, but he deserves credit for recognising the problems and trying to address them. It is too early to judge the new recruits, as it will be the league games that decide whether they are better than what we had before. For what it's worth, Cunningham had a good first half, and we can forgive his miss as long as he doesn't repeat it too often. McClair also showed some nice touches, but faded in the second half. Higgins only got 20 minutes, but earned his goal, although a silly booking for dissent could have been avoided. There are still a couple of problems positions, most notably right back and a central midfielder to partner Johnny Allan. Beith is next up and this will be a proper test to see if we are any closer to competing in the league.

Match report written by Stuart McBay