Clyde v Queen of the South

Recap

Clyde managed to get the monkey off their back with a deserved win over First division rivals Queen of the South in the first round of the Challenge Cup. Changes were made from the weekend defeat by Hamilton, as MacLennan and David McGowan came in for the injured Mikey McGowan, with Marvyn Wilson dropping to the bench. There was also a place on the bench for 16 year old Michael Doherty.

Queens were missing the familiar faces of Jim Thomson and Robert Harris in defence, but still fielded an impressive looking side that included ex Clyde men Neil McFarlane and Brian Gilmour.

A steady start to the game saw both teams play the ball around nicely from midfield, with Queens effective in finding the tall figure of Sean O’Conner up front, with Dobbie playing off him. The first chance of the game came to O’Conner, but he couldn’t keep his header down from a Paton corner.

Clyde responded immediately and in familiar fashion. A long Hutton clearance was well flicked on by McGowan towards Arbuckle, who used his body well to turn Queen’s defender McGowan and head goalwards, only for him to be brought down on the edge of the box. At first it appeared that Arbuckle was through on goal and had been deliberately taken out, but the referee called it correctly as McGowan collided with Arbuckle after stumbling. The free kick would be punishment enough, as Masterton unleashed another cracker straight into the corner to give Clyde the lead.

Although Clyde were looking much improved, Queens still had enough in their ranks to cause problems, although an equalizer almost came through a slice of luck. After Dobbie had just narrowly missed out on linking with Tosh in the box, the latter saw a Higgins clearance ricochet back off him to Dobbie ten yards out. Fortunately for Clyde Dobbie elected to try and be too clever and chipped the ball harmlessly over the bar.

Clyde could and should have increased their lead when a high Bradley cross was met by Arbuckle 6 yards out, but perhaps stretching too much to reach the ball, glanced wide.

Queens came out in a more determined fashion in the second half, but rarely threatened the Clyde rearguard, marshalled superbly on the night by McGregor. As Queen’s pushed forward more, Clyde broke with pace, but often lacking a killer pass. One real chance fell to sub Bingham, who seemed to dally on the ball too much and Higgins cleared.

There was a real-let off for Clyde with minutes remaining however, and perhaps the luck that had deserted them previously was evident, when Steve Tosh’s superb 25 yard drive crashed off the underside of the bar, and was cleared to safety.

Clyde would see out the remainder of the game with little difficulty, and provided a welcome victory for the new manager.