Clydebank 7
St Andrews Utd 0
Scottish Cup (Preliminary Round)

Match Report

The Bankies winning machine rolled on for another week as we disposed of St Andrews United with little difficulty scoring seven times without reply and progressing to the 1st round of the Scottish Cup. That makes it eight wins in a row in all competitions since the start of the season and the Saints were quite simply brushed aside in a very dominant second half display after the East of Scotland side had acquitted themselves with great credit in the opening period.

The Saints had come with a game plan that had been relatively successful. They conceded territory and possession, but tried to squeeze the space in their own half to then hit on the counter attack when they turned the ball over.

The Bankies found this quite tough to break down in the first half, particularly against an energetic opponent. This meant the Bankies were forced into a lot of side to side passing and needed to be patient to find their openings.

As per last week, it was a goal on the stroke of half time that made all the difference. The Bankies were already leading by a goal to nil through an early Nicky Little effort, but hadn’t manufactured too many other efforts on goal despite having the lion’s share of the possession.

This had given St Andrews some encouragement and they hit the crossbar through Collins, and then had a goal chopped off for offside as the visitors threatened to get back on level terms.

However, against the run of play the Bankies scored a cracking goal with practically the last kick of the half. A tremendous left to right 60 yard pass from David Syme found Adam Hodge racing into the box. His first touch was outstanding and he managed to clip the ball across the face of goal for Kier Samson who got the faintest of touches to skim the ball over the line. Ciaran Mulcahy rammed the ball home to make sure but it was Samson’s goal.

This put a completely different complexion on the second half. St Andrew’s now had a bit of a mountain to climb and it became apparent they weren’t up to the job. Just like last week’s game at Johnstone Burgh, the Bankies players raised their levels after the resumption and the scoring of the third goal with just seven minutes on the clock killed the game as a contest.

It was another fine finish for Keir Samson who had substituted on for the injured Nicky Little midway through the first half. He volleyed home a Dean Cairns cross with great authority, and he looks like the penalty box striker we have been badly missing in the squad.

When Ciaran Mulcahy finished off a neat cross from Adam Hodge just five minutes later it looked like a case of how many the Bankies could now score. It was a bit tough on St Andrews who had contributed to a decent first half, but they were now being swamped and they went on to concede a further three goals.

Keir Samson went on to grab his first Bankies hat trick when he was alert to keeper Halliday dropping a deflected Lee Gallacher shot. With just about all the other players retreating, he was sharp to what was going on and managed to prod the ball away from the keeper before knocking it in to the empty net.

The last two goals were scored by another substitute Ben McLernan. The first was an absolute belter into the top corner and his second and the Bankies seventh was slotted home from a Callum Graham set up. Young McLernan has a lot of competition in front of him, but the academy graduate has filled out physically in the last year and looks like he has something to offer the team.

One of the most satisfying things is seeing the hunger from the guys coming off the bench. They all look desperate to play. Collins, MacKenzie, Graham and hat-trick hero Samson are putting intense pressure on the starting eleven and with Nicky Low returning for the absent Frazer Johnstone the competition for places is highly potent.

With yet another test passed, the Bankies are back on league business next week at Hurlford United. We have struggled badly at Blair Park over the years, but we finally broke that hoodoo at the end of last season. The longer this winning run goes on, the more determined our opponents are going to be. However, This squad of players look capable of dealing with these increased challenges and with the Bankies support travelling in large numbers we hope to see another positive result.

Match report written by Stuart McBay