Clyde v Motherwell

Recap

Clyde slipped to third in Group G of the Premier Sports Cup after defeat at the hands of Premiership opponents Motherwell at New Douglas Park.

Jordan Allan was handed his first start after returning for a third spell as Ian McCall made four changes from the Premier Sports Cup opener against Edinburgh City with Dominic Docherty making his Clyde debut. Martin Rennie and Ross Lyon were also brought into the starting lineup as Tommy Robson, Darren Lyon, Kyle Connell and Marley Redfern dropped to the bench.

Motherwell started the match on the front foot as they came close twice in a lively opening period to the match. Robinson snatched possession to poke a goalbound shot across the box in the fifth minute, but Lee Hamilton was on hand to clear the ball off the line. The forward had another attempt a minute later, this time rounding past Kinnear only for his effort to skew wide.

At the other end, Clyde also spurned an opportunity to open the scoring with Rennie connecting onto Allan’s pass in a crammed box, however his shot was blocked by a defender.

The visitors were the one to open the deadlock in the 12th minute. A low cross whizzed into the box with Paton poking the ball into the path of Ebiye, who sent a high-arching shot past Kinnear and into the net from close range.

As the match progressed, neither ‘keeper were troubled as the majority of play was largely contained to the middle of the park. The Bully Wee were struggling to bypass a strong defence and push the ball forward and out of their half of the pitch as the visitors dominated possession.

With five minutes remaining of the first period, Clyde attempted their first clear chance since the earlier stages of the match with Ross Lyon directing a curling shot from the far edge of the box which flew wide. Moses then sent the ball across goal from a narrow angle, but his attempt was quickly intercepted as the Steelmen went into the break with a slight advantage.

The visitors almost doubled their advantage immediately after the break as Moses muscled into the box, only for the ball to bounce past the post. Barry Cuddihy then swept the ball off the line to deny Ebiye’s brace.

Clyde quickly found themselves having to cope with swathes of attacks into their box with Halliday sending his shot wide while Ebiye and Robinson also tried their luck but both their efforts missed the target.

Motherwell were contining to press the home defence in the aim of extending their lead with Miller sending the ball in the direction of goal only to be thwarted by Kinnear.

The Steelmen were left to rue their lack of composure in front of goal in the 61st minute as Clyde equalised courtesy of Lee Hamilton. The defender cottoned onto Raymond Grant’s pass, which was initially cleared, to send a powerful strike beyond Hegyi from the edge of the box which nestled deep into the bottom corner.

However, four minutes later, the referee awarded the visitors a penalty after judging Kinnear to have fouled Miller in the box, with the midfielder blasting his spot-kick into the top corner.

Liam Scullion went agonisingly close to netting an immediate response in the 66th minute after Logan Dunachie, who bypassed Gordon to maintain possession of the ball, sent it into the reach of the midfielder, but he struggled to connect.

With seven minutes of normal time remaining, Dunachie leapt up to catch the end of Scullion’s high cross to flick a header at goal, but he didn’t garner enough power as it was calmly collected by Hegyi.

Motherwell then prevented any notion of a late Clyde comeback as they sealed victory in the 86th minute. An unmarked Stuparevic latched onto the ball from outside the box and cut inside to send home an unassailable strike which sailed beyond Kinnear and into the net.