East Fife 2-0 Clyde

Clyde were defeated on their travels again this afternoon as a goal in each half from East Fife saw the points remain at Bayview.

Brian McLean welcomed Martin Rennie and Kian Leslie back into the squad after injury, with the former returning to the starting line-up alongside Alexander King for his debut. Conor Scullion missed out due to illness.

The first chance of the day fell to The Bully Wee when Barry Cuddihy glided into the box and met Ross Lyon’s cross with his head but home goalkeeper Allan Fleming pulled off a great save to deny him.

Less than a minute later the hosts took the lead. Fleming’s long goal kick was misjudged by Logan Dunachie, and it allowed Scott Shepherd to latch onto the ball and he raced through on goal, slotting across Jack Leighfield.

Darren Hynes almost had Clyde back on level terms shortly after when he received a cutback from Euan Cameron but his shot heading towards target was blocked by the leg of a home defender, and then Cuddihy tried his luck from outside the box but the ball went narrowly wide.

The same players also came close just before the interval but were unable to beat Fleming; Hynes saw his low shot saved by the ‘keepers foot, before he denied Cuddihy’s powerful strike from inside the box.

East Fife had a couple of chances in quick succession as the second half got underway; Ryan Schiavone drilled a low shot on target which Leighfield held, and then Connor McManus got in behind the Clyde defence with the goal at his mercy, but Erik Sula got a toe in to send the ball for a corner just as he was about to pull the trigger.

Sula and Dunachie almost got on the end of a whipped free-kick into the box from Alexander King but the ball drifted narrowly past the post, before the Fifers sealed the points in the 72nd minute. A corner bobbled across the face of goal to the back post where Alan Trouten was on hand to tap into an empty net.

REACTION – Brian McLean’s post-match comments

Picture by David Simmonds