Raith Rovers 0
Clydebank 3
League (Division 1)

Match Report

For managers to call for a winter soccer shutdown immediately after their teams have won away from home is quite surprising.

For diehard fans to do so in similar circumstances is well-nigh unbelievable. Yet, sitting in the stand at ice-cold Kirkcaldy on Saturday, that's exactly the message I got from many of Clydebank's travelling support.

Despite the fact that their side were skating to an emphatic win over the home team, the call from the fans was almost unanimous... gies a break!

I wouldn't disagree. Having decided to watch the game from the stand rather than the world's worst press box, I found that it was too cold to write - excuses, excuses.

By the end of a one-sided match, my feet were numb. Now, I am paid to watch football, so I must accept the vagaries of our climate.

The fans, however, shell out good money to support their team. Many of these followers are unemployed.

Although, they went home happy, their favourites having picked up two welcome points, most felt they didn't get value for money.

Bankies, however, did their best to raise the temperature with an excellent performance. From the opening minutes, when Jimmy Given smashed home a tremendous opening goal, they adapted better than Rovers to an icy surface which didn't really leave much scope for clever football.

Clydebank beat the odds by stringing together moves which would have been difficult enough on a perfect pitch-and much of their success stemmed from their choice of footwear.

None of the side played with studs in their soles, a wise move at slippery Starks Park.

The opening goal proved their mobility would give them a great advantage over Raith's cumbersome defence.

After a corner had been half cleared, Mark Treanor lofted a clever ball over the advancing rearguard and Given nipped in to crash a super half-volley over keeper Tommy Walker.

A trend in Bankies' away games seems to be that they hit their hosts with an early goal, give the fans a few heart attacks and then seal their win right at the death, and that's what happened yet again at Kirkcaldy.

Just as we were all ready to nip back early to the warmth of the bus, they stunned Rovers with two brilliant goals in as many minutes.

Gerry Ronald dummied a cross-field Gerry McCabe pass into the path of Tom Coyne, and although he seemed to have over-run the ball, the rejuvenated striker slipped a shot past Walker from the edge of the box and in off the post.

Then Ronald turned goalscorer, racing on to a through ball again catching Raith's defence square, before rounding Walker and shooting leisurely past a couple of desperate defenders.

After that, there was a couple more chances for Bankies to further increase their lead, but really it didn't matter that they were missed. They won at a canter.

The win continues Clydebank's tremendous run of success at Kirkcaldy, which stretches back a couple of seasons to when Raith Rovers' promotion challenge was halted by a couple of heavy defeats at the hands of Bill Munro's men.

Rovers were a dreadfully ordinary bunch, the kind of team Clydebank should be burying every week.

And, while the defence was at no time stretched beyond its capabilities, a word of praise for a sensible team change. Youth team player Paul McLaughlin stepped into the contentious left-back spot at short notice, and played commendably.

Some of his clearances were none too pretty, but this was not a day to take chances and the point is that he cleared the ball regularly and effectively.

Paul also took time to move into attack now and again, and in the first break of the game sent over a superb cross on to the head of Gerry Ronald, whose effort was brilliantly saved by Walker.

The very presence of a left-footed left back in the side gave the defence a much more balanced look, and the whole left side of the team benefited as a result.

McLaughlin should be given his chance to make the position his own. Should he be given that opportunity and should he take it, Clydebank would be saved a lot of money and, more importantly, a lot of goals against.