Clyde v Livingston

Recap

Fresh from reaching their first final in 48 years, a confident Clyde entertained unbeaten Livingston at Broadwood.Right from the off, Clyde attacked the visitors and a lovely piece of play involving Imrie, McGowan, Bryson and Imrie presented Paul McHale with the first shooting chance of the match, but he blazed over. An encouraging start however and the home side were oozing confidence.

2 minutes later and a wicked in swinging corner from O’Donnell was poorly dealt with by Livi’s no 1 Wight, and his fumble fell fortunately to his own player who hooked clear.

Clyde were playing the ball on the deck with pace and precision and the visitors simply could not cope. A superb through ball from O’Donnell playing in Imrie who raced in on goal, and dinked the ball goal wards, but Wight made himself big and blocked the shot for another Clyde corner. From the corner there was further confusion and McGregor was unable to apply the finish to give Clyde the lead their early endeavors deserved.

On 12 minutes, there was a real moment of controversy. A deep cross saw a hesitant Wight come for the ball, then stop. At the back post both Imrie and McPake jumped for the ball, with the latter appearing to head it back goal wards. He ball looped over the Livi keeper and looked to have crossed the line under pressure from Imrie. The stand side Linesman then appeared to indicate a goal only for referee Sproule to give a free kick for a foul on Wight.

As is usually the case, the players momentarily switched off and Dorrans could have done better with a header that clipped the top of the bar.

Clyde had further chances, as they continued to play flowing and energetically. Ferguson could and should have made better contact with a shot and a superbly driven McGowan cross was narrowly missed by the onrushing Imrie.

Livi’s top scorer Steven Craig found himself booked on 28 minutes for an, at best, reckless challenge on McKeown that could have resulted in a harsher punishment if the Clyde player had made more of the challenge.

5 minutes later and Livi had to replace experienced Tweed with Shields. It appeared Tweed had injured himself making a clearance under close scrutiny from Imrie. Refreshingly the big defender explained there was no contact from Imrie.

Despite all having all the possession there were no more clear cut chances, and the only other action of note saw Lee Makel join Craig in the referee’s book for persistent fouling.

Clyde had enjoyed a superb first half, but were level, and there must have been concerns that their dominance had not been translated into a healthy lead.

Some of those fears were allayed right at the start of the second half.After a McHale volley had been deflected agonisingly wide, the tried and tested corner routine from last year finally worked this season. O’Donnell drilled to the near post, Higgins flicked on and from a yard out Ferguson made no mistake and blasted high and home.

This spurred John Robertson into action and he shuffled his pack, with Hislop coming on for Liam Fox and Livi in effect were playing 4 up front with 30 minutes to go.Their possession grew, and Clyde were staring to find themselves defending deep, albeit resiliently. Hislop, however was causing problems playing as an unorthodox winger, and Joe Miller decided to shore up the defence by bringing on Robert Harris for the excellent Chris Higgins, possibly to play as sweeper.

Despite Livi’s more prominent possession, Clyde were getting good opportunities to break. Too often the wrong option was taken, but with only 12 minutes remaining a Dougie Imrie drilled cross was met by Sub Roddy Hunter, whose effort was blocked. A goal would have surely have killed the visitor’s spirited fight back off.

This was not to be though and with only 6 minutes remaining, Livi pulled level. A deep cross by Smilie was headed back across goal by the towering Hislop and Shields nodded over Cherrie and into the net. Certainly not against the run of play, and testament to their manager’s tactics, but cruel to Clyde nonetheless.

The action wasn’t over however, as Steven Craig was given a second yellow for a foul on Malone. It wasn’t the worst tackle, and a yellow was harsh but he was fortunate to only receive a yellow for his first half yellow.

This incensed Livi Assistant Manager Davie Bowman, who was also given his matching orders with only 5 minutes remaining.Livi ensured they got a point when Mckay superbly tackled Roddy Hunter in the dying minutes.

A cracking game, and lots of positives, although the problem of outplaying the bigger teams, yet not talking a reward in terms of points is still a problem. We have by and large outplayed for large spells, St Johnstone, Gretna and Livingston, but have walked away with 2 points out of 9. Rectifying this could go a long way to a successful season.