Airdrie United v Clyde

Recap

Clyde suffered their third defeat in a row against Airdrie on Saturday, despite putting in their best display for a good few weeks.

Clyde chose to recall Andy Ferguson, Ryan McCann and Stephen O’Donnell, to the starting line up, with McKeown, Williams and McLennan dropping out. The big surprise saw Peter Cherrie take his place in goals, with the impressive Hutton on the bench. An unfamiliar backline saw McGowan and Harris flanking the ever-present Higgins.

The match started brightly, with Airdrie playing at pace and Clyde looking dangerous on the break. The first chance saw Craig Bryson break behind the Airdrie defence and his low cross was played just behind Ferguson who couldn’t adjust to score. Dougie Imrie then struck the loose ball against a defender and the chance was lost. Airdrie’s one chance of this period saw flamboyant star Aime Koudou head the ball over the bar when well placed.

The pace of Clyde’s strikers was causing Airdrie problems and a lungbursting run by Gary Arbuckle saw his low ball into the box cleared for a corner. The resulting deadball was superbly punched clear by Airdrie ‘keeper Robertson, as it dipped under the crossbar.

With pressure mounting, Clyde carved out the best chance of the game and again, it was down to Arbuckle’s pace. Despite being clipped from behind by a defender, he outpaced the Airdrie defence to run clear on goal but his resulting effort was weak and was comfortably stopped by Robertson.

That missed chance inspired Airdrie and they started to provide more of an attacking threat, almost with disastrous consequences for Cherrie. A long ball down the middle of the pitch was shouted for by the ‘keeper but he and Chris Higgins collided allowing the ball to run free. As Higgins recovered, he blasted his clearance off oncoming Airdrie striker Garry Twigg but fortunately the ball held up just short of the goal-line, allowing Cherrie to make a comfortable stop.

Despite Clyde’s relative dominance, Airdrie were to take the lead with a goal that could have been prevented. A soft freekick was awarded and played into the box, where Koudou won an easy flick on. Top scorer Twigg reacted quickly and poked the ball past Cherrie.

The one remaining chance of the half saw an O’Donnell corner headed past the post by Imrie.

Clyde started off in a determined fashion in the second half and once again caused problems. A lovely move down the left saw O’Donnell’s pull back swiped clear by a panicking Airdrie defence and then came the moment that summed Clyde’s day up. Imrie was fouled on the edge of the box and Masterton’s powerful freekick was superbly stopped by Robertson’s outstretched hand. The rebound was then acrobatically aimed at goal by Imrie but again he was denied by Robertson, only for Ferguson to bundle the ball in the net. However, the referee spotted a handling offence and awarded Airdrie a freekick. To be fair, their goalkeeper deserved a bit of luck for the two preceding stops.

After that, Clyde ran out of ideas and Airdrie perhaps began to threaten sporadically, with Twigg turning well to fire just past and trialist Potter, the cousin of ex-Clyde skipper John, also fired past when well placed. At the other end, Arbuckle’s solo effort was palmed away by Robertson and the final chance of the game saw substitute Bradley head straight into the ‘keeper’s hands.

Overall, a disappointing outing for Clyde, with missed chances once again, costing the Bully Wee at least a point. The loss of form after the disallowed goal was worrying and it seems like the end of the transfer window can’t come quickly enough, to simply limit the speculation surrounding certain players.