Queen's Park 2
Clydebank 2
League (Division 1)

Match Report

Two goals down with less than five minutes to play, Clydebank staged a recovery which even followers of Roy of the Rovers would have found improbable.

Trailing to a superb McGregor header just before the break, the visitors seemed almost resigned to defeat, and when Frank Melrose broke away 12 minutes from time to slot the ball past Jim Gallacher, that was the final nail in the Clydebank coffin. Or should have been.

For suddenly Jim Fallon's men rolled the sleeves up and got stuck in. It was the veteran skipper himself who led the way with a fine headed goal four minutes from the end.

Gerry Ronald, again a star for the Bankies, jinked his way past two Queen's defenders on the edge of the box to send over a tantalising cross.

The ball seemed to have eluded everyone. But Jim Fallon launched himself headlong to bullet the ball past a bemused Atkins.

Bankies then forced two corners in quick succession, but the amateurs seemed to have weathered the storm. But they hadn't reckoned with Blair Millar.

The big striker had had a quiet match, but that was all forgotten when he fought his way to the by-line, slipped the ball under the diving Queen's keeper and found the onrushing McCabe, who had the easiest of tasks to prod the ball home.
No sooner had the delighted Bankies stopped patting each other on the back when the referee blew the final whistle, leaving the home side stunned.

They had dominated virtually the whole match. They were first to the ball. They looked sharper, fitter and were always the more likely of the two sides to score. The opening spell augured well for the rest of the game, but unfortunately the standard fell, leaving this encounter somewhat short of a classic.

Queen's were denied what seemed a certain penalty in the eighth minute. Jim Gallacher committed himself to coming for a Crawley corner, missed his punch, and found himself stranded 12 yards out.

In the ensuing scramble, the ball seemed to strike both Given and McLauchlan on the arm, but referee Cuthill waved away the furious appeals of the homesters.

Clydebank were kept under considerable pressure, and McGregor tested Gallacher with a spectacular, if speculative, bicycle kick.

At the other end, Bankies made several good chances, but their finishing was well below par.

Ironically, the best effort in the first thirty minutes by a Bankie forward was at the wrong end, when Blair Millar back headed a through ball dangerously close to his own goal. Gallacher, though, got down low to smother the ball.

The big keeper, however, could do nothing about McGregor's opener after 40 minutes. Full-back Tommy Wilson sent over a peach of a cross, and the fair-haired number five rose majestically to nod the ball low into the corner of the net. It was a bad time for the Bankies to lose a goal.

Queen's Park started the second period in determined style, obviously keen to chalk up a win in their first match outside Division Two since 1958.

The first 20 minutes of the half saw the early good football lost in a sea of mediocrity.

Gerry Ronald, at least, managed to raise enough of a gallop in the afternoon heat to race down the wing and aim a fine cross at the head of Blair Millar.

Atkins though, leapt to his side's rescue with a great diving save to palm the ball away from the Clydebank number nine.

Following this fleeting moment of madness, however, the match settled back into its previous dreary routine that is until that rousing finish from Fallon's Furies.