Ross County v Clyde

Recap

Craig Bryson’s attacking qualities caught the eye right from the beginning of this match. In Clyde’;s first attack, a goalbound shot from Craig was blocked by Martin Canning then County keeper Colin Stewart dived at his feet to thwart another Clyde attack.

It was a case of third time lucky for Clyde and Craig Bryson in the twenty-third minute when he took advantage of Dingwall defender Neil McDonald’s poor control, nipped in to steer tha ball home past Stewart, who had to be replaced four minutes later after suffering a couple of knocks. .

Clyde continued to look the team most likely to score but it remained 1-0 at half-time.

Bryn Halliwell then failed to make an appearance in the second half, having injured himself making a save. The big Englishman’s unavailability gave Allan Morrirson the chance to make his first League appearance of the season but it was substiute Alex Burke’s arrival on the field in the fifty-eighth minute that proved to be the game’s reak turning point.

Eleven minutes later the striker met Don Cowie’s cross to power home a header in the sixty-ninth minute.

A feature of the match was a Clyde starting line-up which included, in addition to Craig Bryson, fellow teenagers Kevin Bradley and Robert Harris who both played the full ninety minutes, with Harris’s first team debut being later desribed by Staurt Balmer as "outstanding".

Bradley and Harris were joined in the second half by John Paul McKeever and David Greenhill as the average age of the team dropped to what was probably its lowest of the season. The youthful Clyde line-up eventually began to show signs of tiredness in the second half but they did enough to deny Alex Smith’s team a first win over Clyde this season.

It was a fair outcome according to player coach Gary Bollan. "I think both teams will be happy with a draw. It was an open game, and some of the football was good."

At the end of a season which has exceeded all expectations the ex-Dundee United man made reference to the outgoing Clyde manager. "Billy Reid got a side together that was up there challenging but we slipped away."

Despite points-gathering proving difficult in the last two full months of the season, Clyde finished with sixty points from thirty-six fixtures, equal second with St. Mirren whose superior goal difference just nudged them into the runners-up spot.