Clydebank 2
Clyde 2
League (Division 1)

Match Report

In the week when the prospect of a British Super League has become more realistic, I have a message for those who promote the idea - don't forget the grass roots of the sport.

At least not while there are games like this one to be seen. For the second time this season Bankies and Clyde turned the clock back with a vintage display of all-out attacking, aggressive football which had the fans buzzing.

At Shawfield in September the sides served up eight goals and heaps of incident as Clydebank returned with two well-earned points.

This game only lacked the flurry of goals. It swung back and forth to such a degree that the result could have gone either way right up to the end.

The home fans went away disappointed for their team had lost another point and fallen further behind in the promotion race.

What they couldn't moan about was the quality of the entertainment.

The Glasgow side's fans, on the other hand, were delighted. "Our best performance of the season," one told me, and it certainly looked that way.

For a team lying perilously close to the foot of the table, they abandoned the safety - first tactics employed by so many clubs in the same position and attacked from start to finish.

At times they attacked in the wrong way, too, and inside the first 10 minutes skipper Billy McLaren and young centre back David Flexney went in referee Hugh Young's book for a punch at Gerry McCabe and a wild challenge on Tom Coyne respectively.

McLaren, however, made up for his indiscipline almost immediately... with as crazy a goal as you'll ever see.

When he picked up a loose ball in the centre circle there looked to be little danger to the home defence, but two strides on he let fly and with Jim Gallacher a little farther off his line than perhaps he should have been, the ball dipped and swerved over his head and in.

Five minutes later, Bankies were level with an almost perfect goal. I say perfect because the art of the striker is to be in the right place at the right time, to score with the minimum of effort.

And that's just where Tom Coyne was after a well-worked move ended with Mark Treanor barging his way to the byeline and crossing. Bobby Williamson's dummy put keeper Greig Young off balance and Coyne nodded home easily.

A centre forward doesn't have to be here, there and everywhere for 90 minutes. If he pops up a couple of times and gets the ball on target, then he's done his job.

Clyde seemed to learn that lesson with their second goal. Pat Nevin, the wonder winger tipped for full Scotland honours after brilliant youth team performances, had been seen only in patches, but he was on the spot to head home a cross from the byeline when again Gallacher could have been better placed.

A share of the points was salvaged not long after this when Jimmy Given smacked home a fine goal. In the first half only the width of the upright denied him a marvellous goal when he took a Martin Hughes pass in his stride to fire a shot past Young, but his drive from a similar McCabe pass made amends.

Yet again, though, Bankies were saved in the end by the failure of their opponents to cash in on scoring chances. A controversial refereeing decision near the interval kept the scores level. From just outside the box John McVeigh hammered a superb free kick round the end of the Bankies' wall and past Gallacher.

But referee Young decided that Pat Nevin's presence on the wrong side of the wall constituted interfering with play.

And right at the death, young Clyde midfielder Steve Evans lashed a loose ball over the bar from 12 yards and the last chance of the game was gone. So Clydebank took a point and dropped a little farther behind Hearts and St. Johnstone.

But when you consider the past two games is it really important? The Hearts clash meant a lot more than Saturday's match, but which one threw up more spectacle, or incident, or all-round entertainment?

For me it was most definitely Saturday's game. Managers tell us constantly that "the fans are the ones who count at the end of the day" and the sponsors of any Super League which may evolve should remember that and think on this last point.

Liverpool 0, Everton 0, may be exciting in front of 50,000 screaming Scousers, but what about with a crowd of 815 at Kilbowie Park? The roots of a plant must be tended before the upper reaches will flower.