Glenafton Ath 2
Clydebank 3
League (WoSFL Premier)

Match Report

New signing Craig Truesdale had an unforgettable debut after helping his new team mates to a 3-2 victory over Glenafton Athletic at Loch Park, consolidating the Bankies place at the top of the table. Coming on as a half time substitute, he was highly influential in two of the Bankies goals before being sent off with two silly bookings within 60 seconds in stoppage time.

Gordon Moffat has significantly strengthened his side with the signing of Truesdale, along with Connor Greene and the return of striker Ciaran Mulcahy for the sole aim of an assault on the league title. The Bankies look as strong as they have done in many a long year, but by God we were lucky to come away with all three points from Loch Park today.

Glenafton, under the new management of Ryan Caddis put so much into the game but ended up with nothing mainly due to switching off not once, but twice immediately after equalising. The Bankies probably deserve some credit for digging in when they didn’t play anywhere near their best, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record the Nicky Low shaped hole in the midfield was evident again. Hopefully, he returns from his injury very soon.

It had all started off so well with the Bankies looking in the mood right from the first whistle. To accommodate all of this attacking talent, Moffat went with a highly attacking formation with Graham and Mulcahy supported by McGonigle and Thomas. Taking in to account that Nicky Little and Joe Slattery are still out injured, and Lee Gallacher, Alan Kelly and the aforementioned Truesdale were on the bench the Bankies have an embarrassment of riches from an attacking point of view.

Within five minutes the Bankies were in the lead after Callum Graham netted his fifth goal of the season when he stabbed home a delightful chipped cross from James Grant. The striker had just moments earlier been denied by a top class save from keeper Markey. At this point the Bankies were buzzing all over the field and a possible landslide looked to be on the cards.

However, Glenafton persevered and started to gain a foothold in the game. The Bankies extra attacking formation seemed to give the home side just that little bit more space in the middle of the pitch, and as the early press faded from the Bankies play the Glens started to take over.

After 17 minutes Glenafton had their first real chance of the match when a deep cross from the left wing to the right was knocked back across goal to Liam Caddis. He side-stepped Niven, but he didn’t count on the advancing Donnelly who was quick to block.

The rest of the first half followed a pattern of Clydebank being increasingly careless in possession and not closing down the Glenafton players in midfield quickly enough. Fortunately, the Glens were missing a little bit of a spark in the final third and the game meandered to the break with hardly a shot at goal.
Both sides attempted to rectify their first half deficiencies with Glenafton bringing on veteran striker Michael Moffat, and the Bankies introducing Craig Truesdale for Callum Graham going back to a much more familiar set up.

It was Glenafton who continued to be the stronger side, and with only a single goal separating the sides, it would take just one mistake for the Bankies position to be put in danger. It duly arrived when the Glens were awarded a penalty as Moffat using his experience went down all too easily in the box following an attempt to block from behind.

Moffat took the spot kick himself, calmly despatching the ball into Donnelly’s left hand corner, sending him the wrong way.

Despite offering next to nothing in the second period, the Bankies regained the lead within three minutes. It was all started by Adam Hodge – a top performer on the day - who again showed what competition in multiple positions can do for your motivation.
He played the ball to Craig Truesdale who gave an early glimpse of what Bankies fans can look forward to when he skipped past the full back and delivered a top quality cross to the back post for Ciaran Mulcahy to bullet into the net with his head from close range.

And so it began again with Glenafton pressing for an equaliser, though Clydebank looked a bit more coherent on the break with Lee Gallacher now on the field. He was involved in the move which saw Collins lay the ball off for a Mulcahy piledriver which went wide, then he tried to chip the keeper at his back post but didn’t quite get enough height on the ball.

With under ten minutes remaining, Glenafton got themselves back on terms from a set piece. A cross to the back post was not dealt with adequately and the ball ricocheted across the six yard line for the incoming Luke McBeth who rammed it past the helpless Donnelly.

With Bankies fans thinking of points being dropped or possibly worse, their favourites suddenly took the lead within a minute. Truesdale was the architect again playing the ball inside the full back for Hodge to run onto. The Bankies captain slid the ball into the near post area for Mulcahy. His first effort was blocked, but he made no mistake with the rebound, smashing it home despite the best efforts of Markey.

Clydebank could have put the game out of sight minutes later when Kelly was just off target after he turned Holding inside out. Instead we had to endure six minutes of stoppage time where we desperately defended making all sorts of bad decisions increasing the pressure we were under. We did, thankfully, hold on and if we have any hope of winning the title we are going to have to be more composed when trying to manage a lead.

It was a little disappointing for Truesdale to end his debut with a red card in stoppage time. He was initially booked for kicking the ball away – the daftest of cautionable offences. He then paid dearly for that less than a minute later when he was high with a challenge giving ref McDonald little option.

Ok, so we didn’t play great today but we got the win and nothing else matters. With the squad now at his disposal, the expectations for Gordon Moffat and his team have just gone through the roof. It is hard to remember a time when we had so many options. Darroch, Little, Low, Gallacher, Kelly, Slattery and Truesdale were either on the bench or not playing at all, and we still managed to have, Mulcahy, Graham, McGonigle and Collins in the starting eleven.

How this all knits together is for the manager to determine, but we could be onto something special if he gets it right. As it stands we remain six points clear at the top of the table, but Beith have four games in hand and the champions will not be giving up their title lightly.

There is no league game next week, but we close off 2023 with a home game against Largs Thistle. The pressure is on for us to keep winning and make sure we can take a title challenge into the New Year.

Match report written by Stuart McBay