Dumbarton v Clyde

Recap

Clyde missed the chance to turn up the heat on their promotion rivals this evening, as a disjointed display saw them play out a 0-0 draw against relegation-threatened Dumbarton.

Darren Young made two changes to his starting eleven, in doing so changing his familiar 4-2-3-1 formation to the 3-5-2 shape debuted late on against Edinburgh. Sam Campbell and Barry Cuddihy were the men preferred, with Robbie Leitch and Marley Redfern dropping to the bench.

The first half was almost a complete non-event as The Bully Wee struggled to get to grips with an unfamiliar system. Dumbarton looked the more likely of the two teams to make something happen, but could only draw a single standard save from Clyde ‘keeper Jay Hogarth.

The second half was immediately more noteworthy for the wrong reason, as James Hilton crumpled to the turf after what looked like a fairly innocuous challenge on the stand side touchline. His subsequent stretchering off with what appeared to be a serious ankle injury sparked his team into life for a few minutes, with his replacement Kyle Connell curling an effort just wide soon after.

The goalkeepers then took turns of saving their teams’ bacon, with Brett Long making an excellent diving stop from Tommy Robson’s volley before Hogarth rushed out and spread himself well to deny The Sons’ top scorer Leighton McIntosh.

Clyde took control late on as Dumbarton tried to hang on for a point but, in what had been a recurring theme, balls into dangerous areas of the box couldn’t quite find a man as their recent scoring touch eluded them.

As the clock ticked down, both teams had glorious opportunities to nick all three points in a breathless finale. First, substitute Leitch failed to keep a volley down from about six yards out before The Sons took advantage of Clyde’s chaotic positioning to find a spare man in the box, but his effort was heroically cleared off the line.

In a moment of very late controversy, Long collapsed to the ground under a mere suggestion of a challenge following a long throw, but the referee awarded a free kick to the home side with Redfern primed to slot home.