Maybole 0
Clydebank 1
South Challenge Cup (4th Round)

Match Report

The most important thing about cup football is to get the “W” in your column and the Bankies managed that today with a slender one goal victory over third tier Maybole in the South Challenge Cup at Ladywell Stadium.

So, a win is a win is a win, but as a game of football it was grim, it was grim, it was grim.

Barring the first ten minutes, when the Bankies looked like they were going to sweep Maybole into oblivion, the performance was chronically bad. It was like the players collectively pushed the snooze button, rolled over and went to sleep.

If Maybole had carried any attacking threat whatsoever the Bankies could have been in a spot of bother. Virtually the whole of the second half was played in the Clydebank half of the park, and really the Bankies defence and maybe Frazer Johnstone were the only players who could say they done themselves justice today.

The Bankies don’t have their problems to seek in terms of selection issues at the moment. The retirement of Chris Black was a blow to an already threadbare squad with McMahon and Hodge added to the missing list through suspension, and Danny MacKenzie cup tied for this one.

This meant Oisin McHugh was recalled from his loan at Petershill and Adam Smith made his first start since May last year.

Most of the favourable moments for the Bankies came in the opening spell of the match. A number of corners were forced and it was through one of these that the only goal of the game was scored after just five minutes.

It’s not often the Bankies drop a corner right on top of the goalkeeper, but this one saw a rush of bodies into the six yard box and Kevin Green was the man on the spot to head home from only a few yards out.

Before the goal, a Kelly shot was parried by the goalkeeper, then a Little volley from a half-cleared corner was cleared off the line. The goal looked on the cards when it came and it looked like Clydebank were keen to put this game to bed early on.

Kelly had a similar volley to Nicky Little’s effort minutes before, but mis-cued it over the bar, then Higgins sent a shot wide after being put clear by Little as the Bankies chased the killer second goal.

Then it all stopped.

From around fifteen minutes onwards, Clydebank’s play completely disintegrated. If a mis-placed pass was there to be played, then it was played. It would be easy to blame the pitch as it is not the flattest, but it was in decent condition otherwise and didn’t break up even when the torrential rain came on in the last 20 minutes.

The saving grace for the Bankies was that Maybole didn’t have the wherewithal to find a way through the Clydebank defence. A free-kick in the 29th minute from around 30 yards went comfortably over the bar, but possibly their best chance of the game came around ten minutes later.

Craig Harvey beat Kevin Green and Matt Niven down the left wing before delivering a fine cross into the box which Patterson met on the half volley, but his connection wasn’t the greatest and the ball squirmed wide.

The second half was turgid a performance as you are likely to see from a Clydebank side. There was very little from an attacking point of view and to be on the back foot for such long spells against a side two divisions below was not good enough.

The Bankies defence were resolute however, and barring the odd loose ball that could have went anywhere, Jamie Donnelly’s goal did not look likely to be breeched.

It was only in the final ten minutes that the Bankies started to perk up a little and substitute McGonigle had a great chance to finish it when his left footed shot from a McHugh cross was well saved by Semple.

If Clydebank go on to win this tournament, no one will be thinking about this game and it will just say 1-0 in the history books. However, it is showing that the need to get one or two new faces in the squad is becoming more acute.

The pool of players is already quite stretched and the Bankies are likely to face a number of midweek games judging by the amount of fixtures remaining. It is hard to see how the squad will hold up with such a difficult schedule ahead.

Next week the Bankies host Petershill in the league.

Match report written by Stuart McBay