St. Johnstone v Clyde

Recap

Earlier this season, Clyde ended a 10 match unbeaten run for St Johnstone in the league with a late goal. Quite clearly lightening does strike twice.

Taking a 9 game unbeaten streak to Perth, Clyde recalled the previously suspended Paul McHale to the starting line-up, with Dougie Imrie returning for the suspended Neil McGregor. Eddie Malone moved to the blonde haired defenders sweeper position. Up front, Trialist Alex Williams started his first game for Clyde in 7 months.

The first half saw a fairly average game unfold. Clyde dominated possession for long spells without creating many clear chances. Craig Bryson hassled the St Johnstone defence persistently and created two opportunities. Firstly, he produced a good save from Cuthbert and then unselfishly chose to pass whilst well placed after Kevin James lost the ball. Williams stabbed a cross out of play in surprise at receiving the ball.

At the other end, Clyde ‘keeper Hutton showed good handling to deny Mensing before McKeown missed a good headed chance for Clyde. On form Gary Arbuckle then cruised past three defenders before hitting a weak shot straight at Cuthbert.

Despite Clyde’s hold on possession, the main chance of the half fell to the Saintees. Steven Milne raced onto a looping through ball and his lovely lob just dipped past Hutton’s post with the ‘keeper beaten. A quality attempt that most of the ground thought was on target.

After a quiet time of things for the referee, a bit of life was sparked into the crowd with two bookings in a minute, one for each side, with harsh decisions awarded against Anderson and Imrie.

At half time, St Johnstone predictably received a talking to from their manager and came out in a more determined fashion. Hutton had to be alive to stop a point blank Hardie effort. Clyde then pushed forward, with O’Donnell’s freekick dipping past the post following a foul on Imrie, which saw Darren Sheridan booked. At this point Imrie was starting to play well having been anonymous in the first half and following a mistake by Hardie, he beat Anderson before delivering a lovely cross that Arbuckle finished powerfully for his 5th goal in 6 games.

St Johnstone then increased their pressure but simply proceeded to constantly throw crosses into Clyde’s box that were dealt with comfortably. After about 10 minutes of this, Clyde started to push for a second and indeed carved out the best chance of this period, with Steven Masterton, who replaced the injured Craig Bryson, moving into the box and choosing to pass to O’Donnell, who saw his shot blocked in the 6 yard box.

Both Paul Sheerin and Willie McLaren then hit woeful efforts over the bar when well placed and Clyde seemed to settle into a comfort zone, with St Johnstone running out of ideas. However, Craig McKeown crudely tugged back McLaren with the ball already lost by the Saints man and from the resulting freekick, 6’7 defender James knocked the ball down for Milne to score from close range with just 6 minutes remaining.

Clyde decided to push forward to look for a winner and were punished . McLaren moved onto a long ball and squared for substitute Peter McDonald to slot home a classy finish and win the three points for St Johnstone.

MotM: David Hutton. A composed, confident display from the young goalkeeper, with one in particular stunning stop.