St. Johnstone v Clyde

Recap

A much changed Bully Wee side exited the Scottish Cup this evening at the hands of St. Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

Facing their 12th game in 29 days, Danny Lennon rotated his squad and made eight changes to the side that faced Dumbarton on Thursday, with goalkeeper Matej Vajs making his first appearance since December.

The Saints opened the scoring in the sixth minute when Michael O’Halloran got to the by-line and cut back for Guy Melamed to poke home from close range. 

Melamed had another chance shortly after but blazed over from the edge of the box. 

The home side doubled their advantage after a poorly worked Clyde throw allowed Stevie May to break up field and play in O’Halloran, who slotted beyond Vajs. 

St. Johnstone pressed for more goals as the first half went on, with Vajs pulling off a good save from a Scott Tanser header at the back post, and then Marky Munro cleared an effort off the line. 

The Perth club continued to dominate proceedings in the second half and Vajs twice got hands to efforts from Liam Craig, whilst a header from a corner cracked the crossbar.

The Bully Wee began to spend more time in the opposition half as the game wore on and had the ball in the back of the net with 13 minutes remaining when Kane Ritchie-Hosler pressured a home defender into knocking the ball into the path of Lewis Jamieson, who rounded Elliot Parish and slotted home. The referee and his assistant however determined that Ritchie-Hosler had played the ball to Jamieson, in an offside position.

The young Clyde side continued to work hard and put in plenty of effort in the remaining minutes. They had a chance to snatch a consolation in stoppage time when Jamie Bain’s cross from a wide area evaded a defender and came to Jamieson, but he couldn’t make a proper connection and Parish held the effort.