St. Mirren v Clyde

Recap

"The better team won on the day" was the gist of Manager Graham Roberts comments after this match, with a goal in each half giving the Paisley side the three points.

The first goal came in the twenty-seventh minute via a well-taken Stewart Kean penalty, after Kean was adjudged to have been fouled by Chris Higgins. John Sutton’s close range header midway through the second half doubled Saints’ lead, a lead they did not look like surrendering.

It was Clyde that looked to have taken the lead in the fourth minute. A Clyde free kick was nodded across goal by Craig McKeown, but the referee ruled that Tom Brighton’s close-range header had not crossed the goal line after all, despite Clyde protests, the ball finally being gathered by St Mirren goalkeeper Chris Smith.

Clyde certainly looked the livelier lot for the first twenty minutes at least, with the Saints backline looking decidedly shaky under pressure. However in the twenty-seventh minute it was the Cyde rearguard that looked shaky when a long punt by keeper Smith caused indecisiveness as the ball was allowed to bounce, Chris Higgins found himself on the wrong side of the nippy Kean and in the tangle Kean went down.

"We gave away a sloppy first goal, “ was the Manager’s verdict. “One long ball, one bounce and it’s a penalty. The ball shouldn’t have beaten both centre-halves. As soon as they let it bounce we were in trouble.”

For the remainder of the first forty-five minutes, Clyde failed to take advantage of a few decent chances whilst Saints in the main were reduced to long-range shooting.

Paul Jarvie was replaced at half-time by Peter Cherrie and he quickly made an impact by booting the ball out of the ground!

Saints dominated for most of the second half, scoring their second with eighteen minutes left. Simon Lappin crossed, Billy Mehmet, a substitute for Kean, flicked on and John Sutton headed home.

The second goal ended the game as a contest, despite Clyde committing all three substitutes before seventy minutes had elapsed. When Sutton knocked in St Mirren’s second, it was all over, although both teams had a few more half chances. .

Clyde again gained plaudits for being not only hard-working but a much more attractive outfit than they were last season. However, in this match, the Bully Wee only showed up well in patches and rarely looked capable of breaching the Buddies’ defence.