Berwick Rangers v Clyde

Recap

The Bully Wee suffered a frustrating defeat at Shielfield Park this evening, taking nothing away from the match despite scoring three times.

Peter MacDonald and JP McGovern made three changes to the team following Saturday’s draw against Forfar, with Chris Smith, Matt Flynn and Sean Higgins coming in for Jordan McMillan, Ryan Finnie and MacDonald himself.

Clyde looked comfortable in the early stages of the match and Scott McLaughlin had a decent chance at the edge of the box, but he couldn’t get any power on the shot.

However, two soft goals gave Berwick the advantage, first when a cross from the right was nudged in by Gary Phillips and secondly when Greg Rutherford managed to get away from Chris Smith and squeeze a shot into the near corner.

The Bully Wee probably didn’t deserve to be behind and soon got back on level terms as Smith forced a header home and David Gormley’s shot took a slight deflection off Pat Scullion and hit the net.

There was still time for another goal before the break, as Steven Thomson found space in the box and blasted a superb shot into the top corner from a tight angle.

At the start of the second half, Clyde had a glorious chance to equalise again but a mix-up between Higgins and Flynn led to the opportunity being lost.

Much of the play featured The Bully Wee pushing forward for a goal and Ewan McNeil saw his long-range effort saved by Kevin Walker.

Another attack saw Flynn stopped by a last ditch tackle but it led to a Berwick breakaway and an exposed Clyde defence was eventually punished by Rutherford, making it 4-2.

On 82 minutes, McLaughlin’s free-kick kick was headed in by Gormley and that led to a tense end to the game as Clyde pushed for a point. 

A denied penalty claim for handball and some determined home defending confirmed a difficult defeat for The Bully Wee.