Dundee v Clyde

Recap

After a succession of home games, Clyde took part in their first away league encounter of the season with a trip to rain soaked Dundee. The Dens Park side, one of the pre-season title favourites, hoped for a big crowd to witness the home debuts of Chris Pozniak, Darren Williams, Mark Gilhaney and Eric Paton as well as the returning Robert Douglas. Clyde missed the injured Neil McGregor and the suspended Marvyn Wilson, although there was the pleasing sight of Ricky Waddell making his first appearance in a Clyde jersey, albeit as an ultimately un-used substitute.

Dundee began the game with a long period of possession but a strong Clyde defence kept them at arms length, with a header from Michael Antoine Curier that went past the post the only effort in the early part of the game. Both teams suffered blows after 15 minutes, when Willie McLaren and David Cowan suffered injuries in separate incidents; Roddy MacLennan and Gary MacKenzie were their replacements.

The wet conditions meant that individual errors were always possible and Colin McMenamin was left with a good chance following a slip by Michael Ohnesorge. The ex-Gretna striker took too long to get his shot away though and was soon crowded out. At the other end, a couple of promising breaks almost led to Clyde taking the lead but both Scott Gemmill and Alan Trouten hit their shots too close to Douglas. The introduction of 6’4 centre half MacKenzie gave Dundee an additional threat at set pieces and he twice thumped headers past the post, before flicking another over the crossbar from 5 yards.

As play petered out towards half-time, a deflected free-kick from Ohnesorge tested Douglas’ handling once more. However, the one moment of real quality in the half saw Dundee take the lead on the stroke of half-time. A long ball forward was flicked on by McMenamin towards Curier, who pulled the ball out of the air and thumped home a superb strike from 25 yards. He could perhaps have been closed down better but that shouldn’t take anything away from the excellence of the goal.

The second half saw Dundee keep possession in the early stages and another free kick saw MacKenzie out jump Higgins, only for his header across goal to elude Curier. This was to be their final threat however, as Clyde began to work their way into the game. Gemmill burst through only to pull his shot wide of the target and followed that up by later hitting a soft effort straight at Douglas. That was his final action as he was replaced by Gary McSwegan. Dave McKay then replaced the injured Stuart Kettlewell.

With Pat Clarke moved into a wide right position, his powerful running became more of a threat and after beating two Dundee players, he struck a low effort past the post. Then, after beating two more players, a lucky ricochet saw him once more bearing down on goal only for his weak effort to be comfortably stopped by Douglas. The ex-Scotland international was praised for his display in the win over Ross County and he once more took the plaudits when he denied Billy Gibson from close range. A free-kick from Alan Trouten found Gibson at the back post and his powerful header seemed destined for the corner of the net only for Douglas to block with his leg.

That was to be the final clear cut chance as, despite piling bodies into the box on several occasions, Clyde failed to find the break through.

After much criticism, rightly or wrongly, of the opening matches of the season, the team displayed a much greater ability to carve out chances. The centre of midfield was competent and surrounded by a pacy front line, tricky wide players and a solid defence. Ohnesorge produced an excellent display and looks like a good addition, Brown has adjusted to First Division football comfortably whilst Trouten’s ability to find space means that he will cause teams problems. As always though, a finishing touch is required to turn narrow defeats into draws and wins.