Cowdenbeath v Clyde

Recap

Clyde’s miserable start to the season continued as once more they drew a blank in front of goal, resulting in a 1-0 defeat at Cowdenbeath. The Bully Wee suffered a pre-match blow as Dave McKay was held-up in traffic and had to be named on the bench. Alongside him was Adam Coakley, whilst Jamie Doyle dropped out of the 16. Calum Reidford, Willie McLachlan, Steven Odenewu and Scott Gair all came into the starting eleven as the team switched to a 3-5-2.

In general, the standard throughout the match was the poorest since Clyde’s relegation, with a series of punts to the opposition goalkeeper and hopelessly mis-directed passes by both teams. Odenewu was to have one of the away team’s few efforts on goal with a weak header that was easily saved by David Hay. The Blue Brazil’s first effort on goal was a strike by Jay Stein that was comfortably held by Reidford but the same player was to provide the game’s defining moment minutes later. Some decent build-up play saw Stein pull down a ball forward, turn inside Ally Park and curl a shot that may have been deflected on its way past Reidford.

Perhaps the astonishment of a goal being scored awoke both teams as the next ten minutes saw things liven up a bit. First, Paul McQuade’s near post flick was superbly tipped over the bar by Reidford and then Willie McLachlan’s free kick produced a decent stop by Hay. The final chance of the half fell to Alan Lithgow but after an excellent touch to control Robert Halliday’s throw-in, he fired high over the bar from the edge of the box.

The 3-5-2 system did not seem to be working as Halliday and Park struggled to provide sufficient width and little link up play with the strikers but the two half-time substitutions were straight swaps; the ill Wilson taken off for Jay Lang and Odenewu replaced by McKay.

Sadly, the second half was even duller than the first with neither goalkeeper remotely troubled at any point. Reidford comfortably held a weak Wardlaw shot and Clyde were denied what looked like a stonewall penalty when Joe Mbu shoved over McKay in the box. The best chance of an equaliser was also created by McKay but his lovely cross was headed wide by Paul McLeod with the striker under pressure from Jay Shields.

All of the late chances fell to the home team but Craig Winter and Mark Ramsey both missed the target. Clyde’s final opportunity came late on but Lang’s corner flew straight out of play and perhaps summed up the lack of quality shown throughout the game.

Overall, this was a real reality check for Clyde. The change in formation didn’t work and only Reidford can be happy with his performance. Despite a poor display, Cowdenbeath were comfortable winners and that says a lot for how bad the Bully Wee performed.