Clydebank 3
Alloa Athletic 4
League (Division 2)

Match Report

Clydebank should never have lost the two points from this match. They stormed through the Alloa defence and had the first half sewn up, all neat and tidy, but the second half was nothing short of a disaster.

Alloa started the game, a shabby and uncertain team, offering little intelligent resistance to precise and accurate Clydebank moves, but how they changed in the second half!

The home team became slack and uncertain, especially in defence. Led by "King Wasp," centre-forward McCallan, who scored a hat-trick, Alloa stung them painfully time and time again.

It was obvious that this was going to be a match to remember right from the beginning. After only four minutes Alloa had a goal disallowed.

McCallan, and Cunningham caught the Clydebank defence on the hop and manoeuvred the ball to the goalmouth, but it went for a corner. The ball came in from the right wing and was cleared. Both teams moved out after it, McCallan won the race and lobbed it back on to Cunningham's head and then into the top of the net. Jubilant cries from Alloa supporters were soon dampened as Referee Crawford shook his head.

Realising the danger, Clydebank began to move more smoothly. O'Brien and Caskie both passed like wizards and Alan Munro tested the strength of the Alloa defence to the limit.

O'Brien, after 16 minutes, took the ball upfield but missed his chance by taking on too many players. Bobby Love picked up a deflection and ran it along the bye-line. He crossed in across the goalmouth giving Alan Munro a chance for a header, but a split-second mistake in timing robbed him of the chance to put 'Bankies into the lead.

A minute later, however, Love again gained possession on the right wing and sent in a long lob. Munro was spot on with a header and caught 'keeper Burgess hopelessly out of position, to score.

Clydebank settled down, for the remainder of the half, to whittling away the precious Alloa confidence, luring the visiting defence out of position on several occasions and giving Burgess a tough time of it.

I don't know what was said in the Alloa dressing room at half time, but it was a changed team that took the field for the second half.

Leading the onslaught, which split Bankies right down the middle, was centre-forward McCallan, man of the match. It is doubtful if his hat-trick will ever be equalled at Kilbowie.

Refusing to be pushed down he kept coming back at the Clydebank goal and his determination paid off.

In the opening minutes of the second half, he scored his first and Alloa's equaliser. He ran in solo, caught McDonald out of position and unleashed a cracker into the corner of the net.

Five minutes later he headed home a Marshall cross to put Alloa into the lead, but it looked as though their jubilation would be short-lived.

Retaliating, Gerry O'Brien got caught in a goalmouth melee at the Alloa end and booted the ball out of a ruck of players into the net to put 'Bankies back on even terms.

Alloa had now tasted the spoils of success, and it wasn't long before McCallan had scored his hat-trick. One thing was sure, the Wasps hadn't lost their sting!

In the 69th minute he gained possession close into the Clydebank goal and tapped the ball past McDonald. Again, for the second time in the match the Alloa players had that sweet taste in their mouths.

And there was more to come. Cunningham, seconded only in the match by McCallan, wound up the game from the visitors' point of view with eight minutes of play left.

Sliding through the Clydebank defence he brought McDonald to his knees and scored.

A consolation goal was the lot of Gerry O'Brien in the closing seconds, Surprising the Alloa defence, he sent a long shot past Burgess.

Clydebank should have this game tied up in a neat little bundle, but they didn’t, and it only goes to prove that these things can happen, though they shouldn't!

The home players did play a fine first half. They were proficient in all aspects of the game, but they lost the match because they were workshy in the second half.

Lazy is a word the Alloa players don't know the meaning of, that is why they won.

Match report written by Oliver McGeachy (Clydebank Press)