Clyde v Stranraer

Recap

Clyde made it nine league games unbeaten courtesy of a draw against Stranraer this afternoon, but a lack of guile in the final third meant they failed to make up ground on league leaders Spartans ahead of next week’s visit to Edinburgh.

There was good and bad news for Bully Wee fans pre-match as top scorer Marley Redfern returned to the bench after a month out injured, but Jamie Bradley, Darren Lyon and Tommy Robson all dropped out of the squad with niggles of their own.

Stranraer started the match the better of the two teams and had a chance inside the opening minute. Deryn Lang took aim from inside the area following some slack Clyde defending but, on his weaker side, failed to test Jay Hogarth. Shortly afterwards, Finn Ecrepont struck a free-kick well from the corner of the box and the Clyde ‘keeper had to be alert to parry it to safety.

The home side grew into the game as the half developed and many in the stand thought Sam Campbell had broken the deadlock with a neat flick from a deep delivery, but visiting stopper Josh Lane produced a fine reflex save to keep the scoreline level. Clyde were soon in control of the game but couldn’t make their pressure count, with both teams finding the side netting through Aaron Quigg and Taylor Sutherland before half time.

The second half was punctuated more by a series of bookings than goalmouth action, though The Bully Wee had a great opportunity to open the scoring when Sutherland drove down the left and squared into a vacant six yard box. The hosts then suffered a big blow when influential midfielder Mouhamed Niang was stretchered off with a quarter of an hour remaining, with a suspected concussion.

Following Niang’s substitution, the game opened up and the time remaining was largely end-to-end, without either side fashioning a clear-cut opportunity. Plenty of balls into the box from both sides were stoutly defended, whilst Sutherland squandered an excellent chance to deliver to better-placed teammates having broken clear in added time, as a frustrating afternoon drew to a close.