Clyde v Queen of the South

Recap

The Bully Wee pulled off a stunning second half comeback against Queen of the South at Broadwood this afternoon, to book their place in the next round of the Tunnock’s Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup.

For the first time this season Danny Lennon named an unchanged team, sticking with the same XI that took a point at Forfar last Saturday.

The visitors opened the scoring in the fourth minute when a corner was headed towards goal, and Connor Murray was on hand to flick the ball home from close range.

The Doonhamers almost doubled their advantage when Stephen Dobbie intercepted a slack pass from David Mitchell, but the ‘keeper redeemed himself and made a good save from Dobbie’s effort.

Martin McNiff was then picked out from two corners but was unable to direct either header on target, whilst Mitchell had to get down to his near post to turn a low drive from Dobbie behind near the end of a pretty tame first half.

Queen of the South did get a second goal just two minutes after the restart, when Stephen Dobbie went down in the box after pressure from Craig Howie. The veteran striker kept his composure to beat Mitchell from 12 yards.

Despite being two goals down to a full-time Championship team, The Bully Wee came back fighting and started to up the tempo. Danny Lennon had introduced Chris Johnston at half-time, and he became influential as Clyde tried to find a way back into the game.

Chris McStay pulled a goal back in sublime fashion just after the hour mark when David Goodwillie found him on the edge of the box. The midfielder flicked the ball up for himself, and then executed a sensational overhead kick to beat Jack Leighfield in the Queens’ goal.

A strong penalty appeal for handball was turned down by referee Colin Steven, and this seemed to fuel on the fans and players to find the equaliser. 

Steven did point to the spot and awarded Clyde a penalty in the 76th minute as a corner was played into the box, with Darren Brownlie booked for an off-the-ball incident. Goodwillie coolly sent Leighfield the wrong way and stroked the ball home.

Just two minutes later the comeback was complete when Mark Lamont floated a free-kick from wide on the half-way line towards the Doonhamers’ box. Leighfield came a long way to try and punch it clear, but he was beaten to the ball by Martin McNiff, whose header bounced into the empty net.

Clyde didn’t sit back and went hunting for a fourth goal to put the tie to bed and it almost came through Ross Lyon after he was played in by Goodwillie, but Leighfield was able to smother his attempt.