Clydebank 4
Celtic 'B' 0
League (Lowland League)

Match Report

Sometimes, but not often, everything just goes your way. Clydebank hammered the Celtic B team by four goals to nil in today’s Lowland League encounter at Holm Park in front of a season’s best attendance, and both our nearest rivals lost, which has opened up a pleasing five-point lead at the top of the table.

However, I don’t think we deserved to win by such a decisive margin. We were on the back foot for large swathes of the game, and the first two goals came firmly against the run of play. Low and Cairns were quite often pushed so far back that it was almost as if we were operating with a back six at times. It was only in the closing stages that we finally got on top, but we were aided by a catastrophic defensive error and a stoppage-time goal which put an undue gloss on the result.

Gordon Moffat’s team selection would suggest that he knew Celtic would seek to control the ball — and they did just that. Their full-time coaching, speed of thought, and execution were on a different level to what we see week in, week out at our level. They were perhaps more refined than the Hearts B team that visited Holm Park a couple of months ago.

Moffat opted for pace down the wings through Black and Hickey-Fugaccia to take advantage of any transitions, but it didn’t really turn out that way — well, on the right wing for sure. The one change that did pay off was Lee Gallacher being preferred to Nicky Little in the number 10 position. Neither of the two have been in great form recently, but Gallacher’s brace of goals would indicate that the correct decision was made here.

Straight from the first whistle Celtic looked to take control and play at their tempo. The ball was rarely off the deck — nothing was played long, and hardly a cross ball either. They were constantly trying to pass their way through our defence, and we had to be very resilient as they knew how to work the spaces and create overloads.

However, the Bankies created the first real chance after five minutes when Aaron Black was sent free by Lee Gallacher, but he tried to place his shot rather than go for power and Gill saved to his left comfortably.

Celtic responded quickly, and Stott had to be alert to beat away a shot from Connor Daly. The Bankies struggled to turn the ball over, but any joy we did earn was down the left through Aaron Black. Unfortunately, Rocco Hickey-Fugaccia, who burst onto the scene last week, just wasn’t at the races today and was rightly replaced by Neil McLaughlin at the interval.

It was through Black’s pace that the Bankies took the lead against the run of play after 16 minutes. Found by Gallacher on the left wing, Black outpaced Cole Crawford inside the box and the defender pulled him down. Lee Gallacher took the spot kick and sent Gill the wrong way to open the scoring.

Despite Celtic dominating possession, there were precious few goalscoring opportunities as our defence worked tirelessly to plug the spaces. A shot on the turn by Hartington and a powerful drive from Rachwal — which Stott smothered at the second attempt — were the best the visitors created, and both of those were from outside the box.

The Bankies actually should have gone in at the break two up, as Samson missed a great chance. The ball was dinked over the Celtic defence, and Cairns cleverly set it up, taking the keeper out of the equation. But, in fairness to Samson, he was stretching and diverted the ball over the bar with the goal gaping.

With the change in personnel at half-time, Clydebank attempted to defend from the front and, while there was some measure of success in turning over the ball higher up the field, Celtic soon got wise to it and the same pattern as the first half resumed.

We were a bit more careless as we conceded several free kicks and corners, and it was from one of these that we had to thank Owen Stott for preserving the lead. An absolute bullet header from Borland was stopped by a combination of Stott’s hands and face, and the ball was hacked to safety.

This was Celtic’s best chance to equalise, though a cross from the left wing did take a wicked deflection and bounce off the top of the bar. Another double effort from Daly and Rachwal was blocked, then sent wide, before Clydebank scored again — totally against the run of play.

With 65 minutes on the clock, Oisin McHugh made a rare foray down the left wing and delivered a fine cross into the box, but it was only cleared as far as Lee Gallacher inside the area. He took one touch to kill the ball, and the second was a controlled shot which sailed beautifully into the top corner.

Although Celtic continued to keep the ball very well, the loss of the second goal appeared to affect them defensively, and Clydebank looked more threatening on the turnovers.

Samson wasted a great opportunity when he hit the bye-line but, using his right foot from the left wing, he over-hit his pull-back and the chance was lost. Then McLaughlin dribbled a shot wide of the goal as his connection on the ball wasn’t the best.

The Bankies did go on to extend the lead by scoring twice more in the closing stages, which was rather harsh on the young Celts. Under pressure from Nicky Little, central defender Borland attempted a passback, not seeing Keir Samson on his blind side. Samson latched on to the ball and skipped past keeper Gill, who tried to impede him, before tapping into the empty net.

With Celtic now defeated, Nicky Little had space to find Neil McLaughlin at the edge of the box. There was no question about his connection this time as he rifled the ball low past the keeper to complete an emphatic win.

In another dimension, the Bankies could have fallen to third in the league today, but instead everything went as well as it could have. We can now watch the midweek card knowing that we will remain top of the league no matter what happens.

Once again, deciding on a man of the match is difficult. Lee Gallacher would be a contender, but I think the best players were all in the defence today. Right across the line they were outstanding, particularly Hodge and McGowan. However, I’m going for Nicky Low, particularly for his second-half performance. A lot of Celtic’s threat came down their right, but Low, forced into a more uncharacteristically defensive role, covered every inch of ground, and the discipline of Low and Cairns was foundational in our resilience today.

Next week, we travel to in-form Broxburn. They have been on a great run, but they suffered a damaging loss at Cumbernauld and will be keen to bounce back straight away.

Match report written by Stuart McBay