Clyde v Hamilton Academical

Recap

Unsurprisingly, Clyde were forced, rather than chose, to start the same eleven who had been comprehensively kicked out of the CIS Insurance Cup. Accies came on the back of an impressive victory against ten man title favorites Dunfermline and a narrow cup win against East Stirling.

As soon as the game started, worried Clyde fans could see that the application, shape and performance level was considerably better than on Tuesday and the game, although bogged down a bit in midfield, certainly saw Clyde the more determined.

It wasn’t until the 18th minute before any goalmouth action came, when Bradley made a fine run to the edge of the box. A left footed shot was on, but he elected to clip the ball through to Imrie who was adjudged to be offside.

Clyde’s next chance would come through a familiar source, a Masterton free kick, which although well struck was held easily by the opposing keeper.

Clyde tried their best to maintain momentum, and Wilson shot wide after some decent lead up play.

Hamilton’s first chance came after 30 minutes. Offiong appeared to control the ball into the path of Parrat who’s deep cross, was met at the back post by Gilhaney, but the winger couldn’t direct goalwards.

3 minutes later and Gilhaney was in the thick of it again, for the wrong reason. After Clyde keeper Hutton had slid out to collect the ball, Gilhaney appeared to kick out at Hutton on the head. Gilhaney would somehow only receive a yellow, and Hutton would have to go off injured later in the match.

Yellow cards seemed to start to creep in at this point, and Teggart was booked for a lunge at Imrie. On 38 minutes, a Smith flick on saw Arbuckle get in front of McLaughlin, and then tumble to the ground. It did appear that McLaughlin did tug back Arbuckle, but perhaps the Clyde forward could have done more to stay on his feet. Referee Clark then booked both players for the ensuing handbags that immediately followed. For some strange reason, Hamilton were then awarded a free kick.

The turning point of the game came on the stroke of half time. A long ball from McLaughlin out of defence saw McGowan appear to play Offiong onside. As the speedy forward burst through, he lobbed the ball over Hutton, and then collided with McGregor in the box. It came as no surprise when the ref pointed to the spot, and sent McGregor off, although further viewings would indicate Offiong had lost his feet before he bumped into McGregor. The same player would slot the resulting penalty away to give Hamilton a slightly fortuitous lead at half time.

The second half, was always likely to be a struggle, and Hamilton at times toyed with the Clyde defence and threatened to kill the game early, but were at times over-elaborate and with only a 1 goal deficit, the game was still not over. After a spate of booking and substitutions, Clyde almost grabbed an unlikely equalizer. After Imrie was fouled, again, close to the touchline, Masterton surprise everyone, by shooting for the near post, only to see the ball cannon back off the post with the goalie well beat.

With ten minutes to go Hamilton finally killed the game. After Imrie was wrongly adjudged to have commited some kind of foul that only the referee saw. From the free kick, Parrat floated a long ball up towards the penalty area. Perhaps, Clyde’s dwindled numbers in defence was a contributory factor, and both McLaughlin and Elebert challenged with Higgins, and Elebert’s header looped expertly over sub keeper Thomson to end the game.