Why Me?!

• 9.30am: It’s amazing how much easier it is to wake up in preparation for the Saturday pilgrimage than for a lecture! Probably due to the fact that lectures are boring, Clyde games though, as we all know, are incapable of being boring!
• 11am: Have made it home earlier today, means that I will get the chance to browse the official site and Pie and Bovril before getting my magnifying glass out to try and see if any of the papers are carrying a feature on the ‘Bully Wee’
• 11.03am: Nope. All the Saturday papers can muster is that we have ‘a full squad to choose from.’ Seeing as ‘The Sun’ has been saying this for nearly ten years now, I take it with a pinch of salt and anxiously await watching the players warm up and trying to figure out who will be playing where.
• 1.30pm: Leave a bit later today so I can see the first half of the Liverpool game. Apparently today they have decided to let me down. Liverpool losing just adds to the pressure on the Clyde game: It is not a good weekend on the occasions when both my teams lose.
• 2.05pm: You can cut the tension with a knife in the Edinburgh Clyde Supporters Bus. (Car). My dad begins to panic that we are late and will be parking in the overspill car park. I manage to calm him down by reminding him, just in case it had escaped his attention for the last 15 years, that we do not pull in the largest crowds, and in fact, he will probably have the pick of any number of excellent parking spaces.
• 2.15pm: Dad reminds me about the dubious quality of stewarding in the parking facilities at fortress Broadwood. We agree that he should perhaps put his foot down a touch.
• 2:30pm: Panic over. We have made it. No overspill car park for us!
• 2:45pm: After a quick drink in the supporters suite, where their was the usual crowd attempting to distract themselves from the usual fears we all suffer from before a game, it’s out to our seats to try and figure out the line-up, and, if we are lucky, soak up the atmosphere(!)
• 3:00pm: Well, it looks like ‘The Sun’ got it right. Everyone appears fit and we field what is probably our strongest line up. Livingston bring a decent support, although as usual you can hear the kids shouting. Thankfully they no longer bring that drum which could possibly be used as a suitable argument for hooliganism!
• 3:25pm: We are actually playing very well. I always feel like we start slowly at Broadwood but today is a different story. Some questionable work by the linesman and the referee result in us having a couple of goals ruled out. It reminds me of the 8th of January when we hammered Celtic 3-1. (It’s amazing the ways you can manage to talk about our famous Cup win. Roy who?)
• 3:45pm: Despite our promising play, we go in at half-time level with a Livingston team that look anything but a threat. Games like these are always a worry because you just feel like we are going to get sucker punched and lose.
• 3:47pm: The home support erupts with relief. With two minutes gone in the 2nd half we make the breakthrough. As usual Eddie sends in a wicked corner which somehow or another No.9 Andy Ferguson dispatches into the back of the net. I love seeing him score because he has the task of replacing last seasons forwards and he plays alongside Dougie Imrie, who is a huge favourite of the supporters. Ferguson may not be Tam Brighton…but he will score more goals than him.
• 4:30pm: Despite Livingston throwing 4 upfront we are in control. Wee Joe however is going mental. For the past 5 minutes I have been watching him get angrier and angrier as Chris Higgins (who was otherwise excellent) gets a little sloppy with his play. With 15 left to play Joe finally decides enough is enough and throws on Bob Harris. Thankfully it appears Joe is beginning to calm down as a stress induced heart attack looked on the cards for a second!
• 4:40pm: I suppose we should have known it was coming: Paul Shields, who, in his time with us always nearly looked like a good player, sticks a simple header in the net. It’s just the sort of poor goal Clyde have perfected giving away over a great number of years. You can almost sense the sigh of acceptance that is heard from the home support.
• 4:41pm: My Dad is now sitting very uncomfortably. I can hear him muttering about how they are going to snatch it and we’ve blown it etc. I on the other hand am staying positive: I would have taken a draw this morning!
• 4:42pm: What if they do snatch it? That would be to much to take.
• 4:47pm: We survive. On reflection we should have won, but a point against Livingston is nothing to be embarrassed about. More importantly we played well and had little difficulty against a so-called superior team. Wee Joe is really starting to get the team playing well.
• 5:15pm: Why do the BBC give Jim Traynor a platform to spout his nonsense?

Mark Nimmo