Ayr Utd 1
Clydebank 3
League (Division 1)

Match Report

Lucky? Who said Clydebank were lucky?

Just because Ayr gifted them a goal, missed enough chances to win a dozen games and gave away a silly penalty doesn't mean that the Bankies were fortunate to come away with the points.

For, the fact is, although it took until the last 20 minutes for them to get into the match, Clydebank should never have had to rely on mistakes to give them a win.

Behind to a simple Allan McInally goal, they made their own problems in the manner of Wednesday's defeat at Tynecastle, but recovered their touch in time to sink the lacklustre home side.

Hero of the hour (or last 20 minutes) was Tommy Coyne, with two goals, one a present from full-back Mark Shanks, the other one of the best of the season so far.

Sandwiched between his two efforts came Mark Treanor's second goal of the season, a penalty kick after Billy Hendry handled a Martin Hughes lob.

Ok, I'll admit it. Luck was on Clydebank's side during that fightback, but they deserved their breaks.

Shanks' complete miskick in front of his side's goal gave Coyne the easiest of chances to equalise McInally 's goal - a mistake by Jim Gallacher caught in two minds after coming off his line to meet a cross - and then Ayr wasted the best opportunity of the match.

With Clydebank's defence in a Fankle, substitute Joe Ward had the ball at his feet six yards out from goal. Perhaps it was because it was his first touch of the ball, maybe he got a bad bounce but with Gallacher wrong footed he scooped his shot high onto the terracing.

At that moment the game was there for Clydebank's taking. Nine minutes from time Hughes flicked the ball over Hendry whose hands went up automatically to stop the ball. Treanor slammed the kick into the bottom of Rennie's goal.

Coyne's second goal sealed a good win. Campbell McKeown playing very well indeed as a second-half replacement for Jimmy Given started a move which ended with Coyne getting onto the end of an inch-perfect through ball to draw Rennie and shoot home from inside the box.

The ease with which Bankies swept Ayr aside in those last minutes showed just how damaging their earlier slackness could have been.

As at Tynecastle, the square passing routines at the back came unstuck far too often, only this time Ayr didn't have a Willie Pettigrew to punish the mistakes.

For the first hour, the whole side seemed to be short on ideas, failing to support each other and looking a bit disjointed and disinterested. But the final flourish more than made-up for these frailties.

Finally, an interesting point on the laws of the game. Last Saturday Stoke City keeper Peter Fox was ordered off for handling the ball outside the box.

Jim Gallacher did precisely the same when he raced off his line to meet the challenge of Alan McInally on Saturday. He was only booked.

Is it then more of an offence to break the rules in Scotland than it is in England?