Clyde v East Stirlingshire

Recap

The Bully Wee put in a strong performance to register a comfortable victory over The Shire this afternoon, opening up a ten point gap between the clubs in the IRN-BRU Third Division table.

With Jason Marr and Declan Gallagher still injured, Clyde’s defence took on a new look with Michael Oliver at right-back and Iain Gray moving into a central role.

The team started the match well and John Neill came close to opening the scoring when he just failed to connect with Lee Sharp’s cross from the left wing.

However, on 19 minutes the first goal arrived. Brian McQueen was adjudged to have been fouled as he seemed certain to connect with a back post header, allowing John Sweeney to slot home from the penalty spot.

Clyde’s dominance continued but they failed to take advantage of a slice of luck when the officials awarded a second penalty for what seemed to be a fair challenge on Kieran Brannan. Sweeney’s second effort, to the visiting ‘keeper’s same side, was saved.

Things were finally made more comfortable at the start of the second half though, when Jack Sloss rounded off a fine team move to notch his first ever goal for the club.

East Stirling only really threatened David Crawford with long-range efforts and a third goal for Clyde killed the game off. John Neill took advantage of a nice break of the ball to put a fine shot into the roof of the net.

Sweeney should have scored another before the full-time whistle when, following good work by substitute Ryan Kane, his shot from inside the box came crashing back off the bar.