Stranraer v Clyde

Recap

Clyde’s wait for a first league win of the 2025-26 season goes on, after a scrappy affair played out on a sticky Stair Park pitch resulted in a sharing of the spoils.

Darren Young made three changes to the side that lost to The Spartans last week; Barry Cuddihy and Craig Howie were restored to the starting eleven having recovered from a knock and illness respectively, whilst Kyle Connell was also brought in to partner Taylor Sutherland.

It was the latter duo who would combine for the game’s first big opening in the sixth minute, as Connell worked his way into a pocket of space and threaded the ball through to Sutherland. He opted to round home ‘keeper Josh Lane but, in doing so, the ball slowed to a crawl on the turf and the chance went begging.

The teams traded blows across the remainder of an end-to-end first half, which saw flurries of chances at both ends. For the hosts, Turay fired wide after a rapid break and Dolan should’ve done better having gained possession at the by-line, whilst Hilton fizzed an effort wide and Connell perhaps should’ve done better with a header from a corner for the visitors.

But as Clyde started to dictate the play, a poor concession saw Stranraer take the lead on thirty-eight minutes. Niang was caught on the ball in midfield and a ragged Bully Wee defence was left very exposed; Corey O’Donnell found ample space at the far post and, when the ball came to the striker, he finished astutely beyond Hogarth.

The visitors responded to that setback well, however, and restored parity with the last kick of the opening period. Nice combination play in the inside right channel presented Hilton with a similar opportunity to his earlier one, and this time his sweet strike whistled inside the post to level the game.

The match tightened up in the second half as both teams got to grips with the ball’s bounce and run on the pitch. Clyde’s best chance across the remainder of the game fell to Andy Murdoch, but his curling effort from the edge of the box went narrowly off target.

Stranraer continued to carry a threat on the break but struggled to seriously test Jay Hogarth, with Ecrepont’s tame header their best chance to nab all three points.

The game became very attritional in its closing stages, punctuated by a series of fouls and cards. With a quarter of an hour to go, manager Darren Young was issued a red card having prevented the home side from taking a quick throw-in. That incident would represent the last real talking point of the afternoon, as the teams had to make do with a point apiece.