Arbroath 4-0 Clyde

The Bully Wee suffered a heavy defeat in Ladbrokes League 2 this afternoon, as Arbroath moved into third place in the table.

Barry Ferguson made one change to the starting line-up following last week’s win over Elgin City, with Scott Tiffoney handed a debut. Martin McNiff was originally the man who dropped to the bench, but Ross Perry was unable to complete the warm-up and McNiff took his place in central defence.

In a very flat first half, there were very few incidents to threaten either goalkeeper, although the home side enjoyed the upper hand in terms of possession. The best early chance came when Ryan McCord got through on goal, but John Gibson did well to usher him away from goal and prevent a shot coming in.

After the half hour mark, The Red Lichties got ahead when Bobby Linn found some space on the left wing and put a low shot into the far corner of the net.

Just before the half-time break, a Clyde corner caused some problems for the home defence and Scott Linton’s low drive looked to be heading in, but it was blocked in a crowded penalty area.

The Bully Wee enjoyed a slightly better spell as the second half progressed and David Gormley had the ball in the net, but he was correctly ruled to be in an offside position. Minutes later, the same player then had Clyde’s best chance of the match when he stretched to meet a cross at the back post, but the ball drifted wide.

Darren Miller (pictured) was introduced to the action in place of Gormley for a second debut of the day, before Gibson pulled off a good save to keep out Mark Whatley’s long range shot.

With about 20 minutes left on the clock, two quick goals for Arbroath ended the match as a contest. Both looked soft from a Clyde point of view, as Martin Scott was given space in the box to score twice from close range.

There was still time for The Red Lichties to make the scoreline more emphatic, as McCord put an audacious chip into the far corner to conclude a bad day for Clyde.