Stirling Albion v Clyde

Recap

The Bully Wee registered a fine victory at Forthbank Stadium this afternoon, maintaining a 100% record ‘on the road’ in the early stages of the Third Division campaign.

Jim Duffy made some changes to the team that lost to Peterhead last week, with Gavin Brown, Paul Hay and Kevin Watt replacing Lee Sharp, John Sweeney and the injured Bryan Gilfillan. Stevie Masterton was also fielded as a trialist for the third match in succession.

Clyde started the match brightly but the home side came close to grabbing the lead when a free-kick from the edge of the box took a deflection on its way to spinning past the post.

However, Clyde began to create the better chances and scored the opening goal after 24 minutes. Kevin Watt latched onto Stef McCluskey’s pass, turned inside a defender and found the corner of the net to record his first goal for the club.

The front pairing of McCluskey and Watt was causing problems for the Albion defence and they both came close to adding to the scoreline before half-time. McCluskey was also extremely unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when he seemed to be clearly fouled in the box, but referee Des Roache saw otherwise.

The Bully Wee’s strong performance continued in the second half, with Masterton coming close with a low shot from 20 yards.

As the end of the match approached, The Binos pushed forward and began to look more threatening in their pursuit of an equaliser. Jamie Barclay was relieved to see a close range effort come back out off the bar but then did well to turn a low shot around the post, as the three points were safely secured.