Clydebank 2
Alloa Athletic 2
League (Division 1)

Match Report

There can't really be much more to say about 2-2 draws, can there?

I mean, once you've sat down and worked out all the different permutations of how any one team can bring about so many of them, it's easy to run out of ideas.

Just out of interest, there are six ways of achieving a share of four goals, and Bankies have managed three of them in their four 2-2 results over the past six matches.

This latest tie saw them lose an early goal, fight back after the break to take the lead and then allowed Alloa to snatch a point.

Maybe I'm getting cynical, but when I said to a colleague before the game that I thought it would finish 2-2 I was only half-joking.

The fact that that's the way it finished up doesn't prove any extra-sensory powers on my part... it's just another coincidence in an incredible run of results for Clydebank.

Even the goals Alloa scored weren't particularly original, for they were almost identical to the ones which beat Bankies at Recreation Park in September.

In that game, defender Bryan Purdie sealed the win with a terrific 25-yard drive, and when he put his side ahead at Kilbowie on Monday, it was with an almost identical shot.

After the opener, Bankies had to withstand some heavy pressure, and Alloa squandered one or two excellent opportunities to extend their lead.

When Clydebank did push forward, their final pass was atrocious. What chances did fall to them were wasted, despite some poor handling from keeper Donald Hunter.

After the break, however, they did find the target, and, as usual, astounded the fans by scoring two exceptional goals after missing easy chances.

The equaliser came in 52 minutes when Gerry McCabe split the defence with a killer pass inside full-back Haggart. Tom Coyne controlled well before beating Hunter in the far corner.

After 66 minutes, Bobby Williamson, again off form, exploded into action with a superb half volley from inside the box which gave the former Dumbarton man no chance.

The lead, though, lasted just six minutes. Seconds after Lenny McComb replaced Campbell in attack for Alloa, the curly-haired substitute raced on to a through ball to draw Jim Gallacher and place home a fine shot.

The best chances after that fell to Alloa player-boss Willie Garner, whose reputation for worrying his own keeper rather than the opposition's obviously preceded him to his new job.

After the centre-half had missed two simple chances from set-pieces one Alloa fan leaving the ground was heard to say: "He wouldn't have missed if it had been his own goals." That might have been the only way Clydebank would have got a winner. For, apart from their two fine goals, they never got it together in front of the visitors' net.

Tom Coyne hit the post, Gerry Ronald and Gerry McCabe both seemed to prefer holding the ball to shooting with it, and Hunter and his cohorts in the rearguard lived to fight another day.

And so, Clydebank end 1982 as they did 1981, in a promotion-challenging position just behind the title favourites and just ahead of the also-rans. But as Old Father Time sharpens his sickle to visit us for another year, I have a heartfelt request to Clydebank's players. Make a resolution, lads; if you must draw, make it something other than 2-2. Please!