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Central District League Division 1

It was a glorious day at Glenhead Park, as the sun shone brightly and there was once again high expectations of a comfortable Bankies victory. And why shouldn't they think so, East Kilbride Thistle's 5 straight league defeats was a confidence boost itself. Unfortunately, Thistle stung the Bankies with a superb strike in the first half and with some exploitation of the referee Hugh MacIntyre, took home all three points in their bid to survive relegation.

Within 40 seconds, Mark Hailstones was in agony, caught very late. Now, a normal referee would've perhaps shown a card but Hugh MacIntyre was content with just warning the player. Hailstones bravely continued, not letting the early attack dampen his spirit. In fact, for the first 10 minutes, this was the only thing that actually happened!

The first chance fell to Ryan Waddell, when a Brian Harkins free-kick was cleared only as far as him. He fired over the crossbar. A minute later Esdale got himself on to a Brady throw (you'll be hearing "Brady throw" an awful lot in this report) which saw Scott Brunton (remember him?) get down well to stop. It was all Clydebank in the early stages, and a good cross from Hailstones after some nifty footwork saw Mitchell be the next to be thwarted from Brunton in goal.

The first actual chance for Thistle was a goal, and a cracker at that! A quickly-taken free-kick caught the Bankies sleeping and James Fay beautifully whacked it into McNab's top right-hand corner, from 25 yards out. I couldn't believe my eyes but it was a beauty of a strike, and the score was Clydebank 0-1 East Kilbride Thistle, after 23 minutes.

Still reeling from this dramatic goal Thistle attacked again, but Dougie Brownlie saw his volley go well wide on 35 minutes. A few minutes later, Esdale fired wide of goal himself. No other chances were made, and the half time score was:

CLYDEBANK 0-1 EAST KILBRIDE THISTLE

Half-time show was good, the crossbar challenge came back and Joe Allison hit the bar straight away. A few also hit the back of the net - it was the only time I'd see a Bankie do that throughout the match!

Things didn't get much better into the second half, and after 55 minutes a Waddell corner went out for a throw-in by Sean Brady, and from this Mitchell got his head to the ball but he directed it into the ground and it went over. It just wasn't going to be Clydebank's day...

Derek Readie had a weak effort easily dealt with and then Clinton Maxwell, freshly back from a surprise holiday, replaced Graeme Dempsey after an hour. Thistle also made a change moments later, Chris Sweeney making way for Vinnie Conway. Clydebank kept up the pressure and Esdale had a header go over on 66 minutes from...oh come on, every other attack is from a Brady throw!

Hailstones was knackered and was replaced by Michael Tolland after 69 minutes. Then came Ryan Scobie's best contribution to the game, a turn and cross from him found it's way to Sean Brady but the defender done enough to force his shot wide of goal. There was only 20 minutes left and it was hard to see Clydebank actually scoring. Thistle had a rare chance when they won a free-kick not far from goal but James Strain stupidly just took it quickly and it went harmlessly over the crossbar. No idea what he was trying to do, really.

Clydebank won another free-kick with 15 minutes to spare, and a great ball in from the midfield maestro found Clinton Maxwell unmarked in the penalty box. He was nowhere even close to hitting the target with his header, though, as the best chance of the game was squandered. This confirmed the "one of those days" feeling that most fans had.

Thistle made another substitution a minute after this chance, Dougie Brownlie going off for David MacLenaghan. This was followed up by a Sean Brady header at the back post going wide. That's right - he actually had a chance, instead of creating one of several with his huge throws! Michael Tolland had a fierce low shot saved after this, and the clock ticked into the last 10 minutes. Ironic that Thistle had only 3 chances or so throughout the game, and were able to take one of them.

Hugh MacIntyre finally got out his pen and little book to show Thistle's David Menelaws a yellow card on 81 minutes. They made their final change as well from this, Ian Penman off for Ross Matthews. Ryan Waddell headed over the bar from 83 minutes, and that was his final contribution to the game as he went off for Des Kelly with 5 minutes to go. The only other chance though was a bizarre one, a mix-up in defence saw an East Kilbride defender attempt to head it back to his keeper, but Brunton came out for the ball anyway. The ball went past Brunton, and hit the post! (EDIT: It was Stephen Watson who almost scored the own goal. Thanks to East Kilbride's "Daz" for this.) A defender then headed behind for a corner, and as usual no chance was made from it. Despite a heavy spell of pressure and about a hundred more long throws from Brady, there were no other real chances and the final score at Glenhead Park was:

CLYDEBANK 0-1 EAST KILBRIDE THISTLE

Oh dear...here's a painful stat to start of with. In 7 league matches, East Kilbride have only gained 4 points. All of those points came against Clydebank, the other matches were defeats. And it's ironic that Thistle had a match against Benburb and pretty much dominated the game and not win, and the same fate was suffered from Clydebank against Thistle, the stats below will clearly show Clydebank's domination of the game.

Thistle did time-waste. But with Hugh MacIntyre in charge, who wouldn't do that? He was being exploited by Thistle wonderfully, as Hugh didn't stamp his authority on the game and this led to Thistle comfortable eating up the time and knowing that Hugh would not do a damn thing about it. Don't blame Thistle for doing that, Clydebank would've done the same in their shoes. Hugh MacIntyre jokingly said to me before the game not to say anything nasty about him or he'll send me a computer virus, so I better be careful with what emails I get! But Hugh MacIntyre was the man in the middle against Dunipace for Clydebank, and blew a kiss to the fans. If the fans can't take him seriously, does he expect the players to do so?

Mark Hailstones did very well with some nice touches and was one of the hardest working players out there. Still, his departure from the field also saw the departure of his disappointed father, who was most likely ticked off that he came all the way down from the North of Scotland for a game like that. McNab did do very well I felt, he had no chance with the goal but didn't do much wrong. He coped with the rare attacks well. Brady's long throws was a constant sight and he did his best to both create and score chances. I think I'll save the player criticisms, though, to those on the Bankies forum. They'll likely do enough moaning anyway!

Why did Clydebank lose? I got a few theories; the Clydebank players weren't up for it, they underestimated the opposition, the opposition were up for it, the referee was to blame for his lack of authority, Clydebank didn't take their chances, Clydebank only have 2 ways to actually make them, Thistle deserved the victory...I could go on and on listing a whole load of reasons. Instead, I'll let you pick your favourite from the above list.

Official man of the match: Sean Brady

STATISTICS

Please note that the content of this website is from a fan of Clydebank FC, and does not represent the club in any way or form.  This is all personal opinion, and is totally unofficial unless I say so otherwise.