Clyde 0-2 East Fife

The Bully Wee exited the William Hill Scottish Cup this afternoon, following a spirited performance that probably deserved better against League 1 opponents.

New manager Danny Lennon made three changes to the starting line-up, with Jack Breslin, Jordan Stewart and David Gormley (pictured) coming in for the ineligible Andy Munro, Darren Ramsay and Smart Osadolor.

The visitors were the first to come close, when Kevin’s Smith header was clawed away at the post by Blair Currie.

After that early scare, Clyde began to get on top of the match and an excellent run by David Goodwillie led to him looking odds on to score, but his low shot drifted just past the post.

On 27 minutes, against the run of play, East Fife took the lead when the ball worked its way over to the left hand side of the penalty box and Smith smashed a volley past Currie and into the net.

David Gormley then had a half chance at the edge of the box, but his shot drifted wide and there was no more scoring before the half-time break.

There were chances at both ends at the start of the second half, with Barry Cuddihy’s volley going straight at Ryan Goodfellow and Smith missing an excellent chance to double his team’s lead from close range.

As The Bully Wee enjoyed another spell of dominance, three chances fell to Gormley in quick succession, but unfortunately none of them found the net. The forward put a long range effort just wide of the post, didn’t have time to react to put a rebound on target from close range and, thirdly, saw his low drive blocked after excellent set up work by Goodwillie.

After that pressure, East Fife delivered a killer blow and made it 2-0. Jack Breslin was forced to give away a foul at the edge of the box and from the resulting free-kick, Jonathan Page got up above Martin McNiff and headed home.

There was still time for a moment of controversy before the full-time whistle though, as McNiff was surprisingly shown a straight red card by referee David Munro after appearing to win the ball fairly in the middle of the park.

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