Clyde v Peterhead

Recap

Clyde crashed back to earth after their previous two wins as Peterhead cruised to a comfortable victory, aided to some extent by a moment of madness from Marvyn Wilson.

Robert Halliday was recalled to the starting line-up in place of Connor Cassidy in the only change from the victory over Arbroath and the Bully Wee started well, looking confident in possession. However, that all changed after 6 minutes as Peterhead took the lead and Clyde certainly couldn’t say that they hadn’t been warned. A free-kick into the box was hammered towards goal by Clark only for Callum Reidford to make a good stop. From the resulting corner, trialist John Stewart flicked the ball on and David Ross netted from inside the 6 yard box.

This appeared to throw Clyde off their stride but a leveller should have came almost immediately as Halliday’s corner was flicked against the post by Mark Casey. The next chance fell to Willie Sawyers but after some brilliant footwork created him space inside the box, he inexplicably tried to square the ball to Paul Stewart rather than shoot himself.

Despite this, Peterhead were retaining the ball well and Reidford was called into action to deny Ross his second. Throughout the game left-winger Graham Sharp caused problems for Ally Park and some brilliant dribbling ended with a cutback that Clark fired against Casey.

The game defining moment came seconds before half-time as Stewart’s poor tackle on Wilson sparked a furious reaction from the Clyde captain that saw him punch the trialist. Stewart was rightly booked and Wilson picked up possibly the most blatant red card seen in a while.

The half-time break gave Clyde a chance to reorganise and change to a 3-4-2 set-up and soon afterwards introduced two substitutes with Alan McFadden and Paul McLeod replacing Steven Howarth and Willie Sawyers, who had been injured seconds before. Peterhead countered this by introducing Dougie Cameron and moving to three up front and the change paid dividends almost immediately. Cameron was allowed to dance down the left touchline and his pull back found Stewart who comfortably slotted into the net.

With only ten-men Clyde had little to respond with and comically they fell three behind. Gary Muir left a loose ball to Park but Sharp nipped in, skipped along the touchline and pulled the ball back for Ross to flick into the net for his fourth goal against Clyde this season.

Peterhead were relatively comfortable and eased off, with Reidford’s only serious work coming from a couple of corners that were flicked goalwards. Indeed, a neat run and cross by McFadden led to fellow substitute McLeod poking home with a couple of minutes to narrow the deficit but Clyde were well beaten.

Most supporters would have been delighted with six points from a hectic week of action but the manner of this defeat was disappointing. The effort was there but too many defensive errors and poor touches led to a return to the bottom of the table.