Clydebank 4
St Anthonys 0
West of Scotland Football League Cup (2nd Round)

Match Report

Clydebank eased their way through to the third round of the West of Scotland Cup after defeating Second Division St Anthonys – who ended the game with ten men - by four goals to nil at Holm Park this afternoon. The result was never really in any danger, but the Bankies play in the second half was generally quite slack and they will need to tighten that up for the Scottish Cup next week.

The Bankies were utterly dominant in the first half in particular, and for a while it looked like the floodgates might open up after Alan Kelly put the ball in the back of the net after just six minutes. He was handily placed to slam the ball home from close range after keeper McGuire had saved well from a Nicky Little shot.

However, the goals didn’t come. Callum Graham missed a hatful of chances, although probably only one of those which came prior to the opening goal should definitely have been taken. It came from a long ball which he latched onto and he lifted it over the out-rushing keeper’s head only to see it go over the bar and onto the roof of the net.

There were other decent chances for Alan Kelly, Joe Slattery and Lee Gallacher, and whilst the score remained at just 1-0, the Ants were always in the game and they had a couple of wee moments, though they were caused by our own recklessness which seemed to get worse as the game progressed.

One such example was when Lee Gallacher gave the ball away well in side his own half and put the Ants into a great attacking position. It was only the quick reactions of Jamie Donnelly who snuffed out the danger by intercepting the ball as the Ants weaved through the Bankies defence.

It was mainly a one way procession however, and a second goal was always going to make it hard for St Anthonys to get back into the game, and it was scored at just the perfect time on the stroke of half time.

Alan Kelly sent the ball diagonally into the box, which James Grant ran onto. He stopped at the bye-line and sent it back to Nicky Little who calmly side-footed the ball into the net well beyond McGuire. This, it turns out, was the 50th different club he has scored against whilst playing for the Bankies. A terrific achievement.

With the game essentially won, the game could have went one of two ways. Either we would have kicked on and rattled in a few more goals, or we could have not pushed the issue and settled for the win. It turned out to be closer to the latter scenario, though a lot of that seemed to be due to some fairly erratic passing, and uninspiring play. At one point, we had Jamie Darroch going absolutely ballistic at his team-mates for the apparent lack of, I wouldn’t say effort, but definitely cohesive play.

Thankfully, it was a very pleasant Autumn afternoon with the sun still having a bit of heat coming from it. But, by God the second half was dull. It would not have been much fun watching this in the pouring rain.

Any glimmering hope the Ants had of staging a remarkable comeback were extinguished when Barnes was sent off with 19 minutes remaining, when he sent Callum Graham tumbling to the ground in a position which the ref deemed to be denying a goalscoring opportunity.

Though, for a period afterwards the ten men Ants had the Bankies on the backfoot for a good ten minutes or so, and could have grabbed a goal when Mullaney hooked the ball over the bar from a decent position inside the penalty area.

The Bankies went on to double their lead in the last few minutes adding an undeserved sheen to the scoreline. The third goal was well worth the money today, as Callum Graham scored an absolute screamer, by battering the ball into the goal via the underside of the bar from easily 25-30 yerds out. There seemed to be some confusion as to whether the ball went over the line, but for anyone standing at that end of the pitch, there was no doubt.

Alan Kelly scored his second with virtually the last kick of the ball following good play from McMahon and Collins when he netted via the post.

In the end a straight-forward enough win, with Bankies playing decently in the first half, and not so good in the second. The Ants never had much to offer and we are generally just a much better outfit than them, so we didn’t really need to play at our best to beat them.

We will need to play much better next week in the Scottish Cup against Formartine United if we hope to get a result. They currently sit top of the Highland League and this will be an extremely challenging match. Reaching the 3rd round of the National cup competition should be an incentive in itself. The run two years ago was a huge moment for the club and to repeat that would be something special.

Match report written by Stuart McBay