East Stirlingshire v Clyde

Recap

The Bully Wee kept up the pressure on the leading teams in the Ladbrokes League 2 promotion race this afternoon, with a victory over East Stirlingshire at Ochilview.

Barry Ferguson made one change to the starting line-up following last week’s win over Elgin City, with Michael Bolochoweckyj replacing Mark McLaughlin in defence.

It was a slow start to the match for Clyde and David Marsh was forced to slide to clear Max Wright’s effort off the line. However, only seconds later, the home side did take the lead when Ross Fisher’s pass found Thomas Orr in the box and he smashed a high shot past Marc Waters and into the roof of the net.

The Bully Wee recovered from that early setback though and quickly replied when Scott Linton’s long throw was helped into his own net by Jordan Cairnie, making it 1-1 after just seven minutes.

Ross Millen and Scott McLaughlin both forced home ‘keeper Darren Dolan into saves and Scott Durie missed the target as Clyde pressed to take the lead.

After 40 minutes, a second goal arrived. Linton received the ball on the right hand side of the penalty box and his lobbed cross was met by McLaughlin, who powered a fine header into the far corner of the net.

Just before half-time, The Shire forced the ball into the net at the back post, but the assistant referee raised his flag for offside.

In the second half, East Stirling should have equalised when a long ball evaded Bolochoweckyj, but Wright’s shot was blocked by the foot of Waters in front of goal.

Sean Higgins then came close to getting on the scoresheet when a cross ball caused problems for the home defence, but his overhead kick went just over the bar.

Minutes later though, with 71 minutes on the clock, Higgins did get a crucial third goal when he picked up David Gormley’s knock-down at the edge of the box and found the bottom corner of the net to the delight of the Clyde support gathered behind that goal.

The momentum of the match changed again though, when David Marsh was shown a straight red card for a tackle that looked high but not malicious.

The Shire capitalised on that incident and set up a nervy last ten minutes when Kris Faulds scored with an excellent swerving shot from 20 yards out.

As Clyde’s ten men battled to hold onto the victory, in the last minute of normal time, a superb piece of solo play by David Gormley gave Higgins the chance to put the game to bed and he took full advantage with a composed volley from just inside the box.