Clyde v Queen’s Park

Recap

Queen’s Park will take a two-goal lead into the second leg of the Ladbrokes League 1 play-off final, after a strong second half display at Broadwood this evening.

Barry Ferguson made one change to the team following Saturday’s win at Elgin, with Marvin Andrews replacing the suspended Mark McLaughlin in defence.

Before the match kicked-off, there was a minute’s silence was observed in memory of Chris Mitchell, with fans of both club’s later contributing to a standing ovation in the 16th minute of the match as a mark of respect.

The visitors raced into an early lead when David Galt managed to get goal side of Andrews and when the defender made contact from behind, the referee immediately pointed to the spot. Sean Burns made no mistake with the penalty.

However, Clyde came back strongly and Willie Muir made a superb low save to prevent the ball creeping in at the near post following a long throw by Scott Linton.

With 15 minutes on the clock, the equaliser came when John Gemmell headed the ball in possibly via a touch from a Spiders defender.

Jordan Kirkpatrick and Linton then both came close with free-kick efforts and David Marsh almost squeezed the ball in after a scramble, as The Bully Wee enjoyed their best spell of the match.

Just before half-time, Queen’s Park had a chance at the other end but John Carter couldn’t find the target with his back post header.

After the break, the away side looked stronger and John Gibson did well to deny Galt in the box, following a quick break.

On 63 minutes, The Spiders got the goal that had looked likely to come, with Vinny Berry finding space in the box the score at the second attempt after an initial shot was blocked.

Clyde’s response was almost immediate, but Linton’s defected free-kick was tipped over the bar by Muir.

With the match delicately poised in the closing stages, a piece of individual brilliance swung the tie in favour of The Spiders, as Galt crashed the ball in off the underside of the bar from 30 yards.

Substitute Jamie Watson came agonisingly close to getting on the end of a ball across the face of the goal before the full-time whistle, but it was Queen’s Park that secured an advantage in the tie at the halfway point.