St. Johnstone v Clyde

Recap

A late Ricky Waddell free-kick was enough to give Clyde a dramatic victory over St. Johnstone in a game that had looked to be heading in the home side’s direction.

Clyde introduced new loan signing Alan Lowing to the starting line-up at right back, with Chris Higgins dropping to the bench. Dave McKay also came into the eleven at right midfield, with Marvyn Wilson missing out due to injury. St Johnstone gave a home league debut to both Alan Morgan and Nick McKoy.

A few late arrivals at the ground were settling into their seats just as Clyde took the lead within the first minute and a half. McKay picked up the ball just inside the opposition’s half and as the home defence parted, he sprinted straight down the middle of the pitch and slid home past Alan Main. The St Johnstone manager, Derek McInnes, put his head into his hands at the shocking defending by his side but McKay took advantage in superb fashion.

Without ever reaching a high standard, Clyde were in reasonable control of the next chunk of the match and McKay struck a powerful drive past the post after good build-up play by Ruari MacLennan and Scott Gemmill. The home team briefly offered up a threat as Andy Jackson hit a powerful drive that Peter Cherrie held comfortably, before Mark Brown and Stuart McCaffrey both received yellow cards in quick succession.

Then, to compound St Johnstone’s misery, Clyde added to their lead. A good break forward from Michael Ohnesorge saw him well tackled as he cut inside to shoot, only for the loose ball to be picked up by Waddell who drove forward and won a corner. From his resulting delivery, the unmarked Gemmill rose above the home defence to thump home a header from six yards.

Unfortunately, Clyde let their guard down just before the half-time break as McKoy successfully headed down a corner from Liam Craig and McCaffrey managed to stab home through a crowd of bodies on the line. Like the goals that the home side conceded, it could perhaps have been prevented with better defending.

At half-time, St Johnstone chose to introduce Paul Sheerin and Derek Holmes for Morgan and Jackson respectively and the changes made a huge difference as for the next twenty minutes, they pummelled the Clyde backline. Holmes’ height in particular caused problems and from his knockdown, Sheerin hit a volley over the crossbar. From a similar situation, Colin Samuel almost moved clean through on goal, only to be denied by an excellent Billy Gibson challenge. Clyde then made their first change of the match, with Higgins replacing Brown and within two minutes had the chance to increase their lead. A terrible afternoon continued for St. Johnstone as poor defending allowed Clarke to run in behind the static home defence but the striker lifted his lob over the crossbar. Alan Trouten then replaced MacLennan in the middle of the pitch.

With Clyde looking to keep out the home side, gradually the Bully Wee’s defence fell further back towards its own goal and it was no surprise that they equalised with over twenty minutes left. Sheerin did well to cut inside McKay and from his deep cross, Holmes leapt above Ohnesorge to head into the net. Predictably this caused the away support to feel some amount of apprehension about the remaining twenty three minutes and St. Johnstone seeked to capitalise on their improved performance with another substitution; McKoy being replaced by Steven Milne.

Perhaps St. Johnstone believed they would now comfortably win the match, or perhaps the efforts to get back level took up too much energy but either way, Clyde started to regain a hold on the match with Trouten in particular providing a creative thrust in the middle of the pitch. His neat ball out to Gemmill almost yielded a chance for Clarke but some tight defending saw the on-form striker hit well past the post. Then, with nine minutes remaining, Clyde notched the winner. Clarke was fouled as he flicked on a header and from the resulting free-kick, Trouten laid the ball off for Waddell to fire home via a hefty deflection.

The expected late onslaught from St. Johnstone didn’t materialise and Clyde had the best chance to add to the scoring. Trouten once more released McKay and from his teasing cross, Clarke, racing in at the back post, fired in a close range volley that Main did well to block. Clyde then played out the remaining few minutes of the match deep in St. Johnstone’s half and like last season, a first league victory was obtained by defeating the Saintees.