Cove Rangers 4-1 Clyde

The Bully Wee suffered their first away loss in cinch League 1 since last October, as table topping Cove Rangers recorded a comprehensive 4-1 victory despite playing most of the match with ten men.

Danny Lennon’s side continued to be decimated by illness and injury, with Jonathan Page, Ross Cunningham and Lewis Jamieson all dropping out to be replaced by Matthew Elsdon, Billy Mortimer and Gregory Tade.

The hosts had a couple of early breaks through Conor Scully and Blair Yule, but both efforts came back off the post.

Ally Love was first to threaten for Clyde, sending a low drive just wide of goal, and then also striking the post from outside the box.

Cove took the lead on the counter attack. Rory McAllister raced through on goal but his shot cracked against the crossbar. It fell kindly for Mitch Megginson however, and he tapped home into the empty net.

Clyde levelled things up five minutes later. Barry Cuddihy’s goalbound effort was blocked on the line by Harry Milne, but referee Craig Napier deemed he had stopped it with his arm, and showed him a red card. Love stepped up and struck the penalty in the bottom corner, to Stuart McKenzie’s right.

The Toonsers restored their advantage a minute before the interval. Clyde failed to clear their lines in the box and the ball went to Fraser Fyvie on the edge of the area, who curled a shot past Maley into the bottom corner of the net.

Cove increased their lead six minutes after the restarted. A bouncing ball from a corner was met by Mark Reynolds, and he struck the ball sweetly into the roof of the net.

The home side sealed the points in the 70th minute after Leighton McIntosh went through one-on-one with Maley. Mark Docherty did well to recover and get back to put a challenge in, but his touch deflected the ball away from Maley and it rolled into the net.