Rothes 1
Clydebank 2
Scottish Cup (1st Preliminary Round)

Match Report

No Glory for the gallant triers of McKessack Park, but the Highland League boys at least deserved another bite at the cherry.

Two poor sides served up a disappointing display marred by a lot of wild kicking and scrappy play. Rothes aim was to hold out to the interval, and this they did, thanks to some atrocious finishing by the visiting attack and sterling work by the Rothes rearguard.

The Bankies had won the toss and took a strong wind advantage. They forced their first corner which was scrambled clear. Rothes were finding it difficult to make progress against the wind and were confined to their own half in the opening stages.

A quick pass by centre forward Russell beat the home defence and went to winger Rankin whose shot struck the side net. Clydebank were piling on the pressure but not using the strong wind to their advantage, and their keeper did not have a ball to handle in the first quarter of an hour.

The Rothes defence was fighting gamely but was being helped by the poor finishing of the Clydebank forwards. There was a near miss for Clydebank when Russell just failed to edge the ball home at the upright and then a timely intervention by Gallagher after Rankin had dribbled past keeper Thompson saved a certain counter for the Bankies.

The longer Rothes held out the better the chances of getting on top and they were making a plucky job of a difficult task. Rothes fans roared for a penalty when Middler appeared to be brought down going through, but the referee waved play on.

Clydebank had still to find the finishing touch and clever lead up work repeatedly broke down at goalmouth. Just on the half time whistle Colin Middler just failed to get his head to a high Hay Cross.

Rothes took the lead three minutes after the restart. McKessack Park went wild when big Ally McRae beat Collumbine out on the bye-line and crossed a lovely ball for Charlie Todd to head home. It was a well taken effort.

Minutes later Gallagher was assisted off with blood streaming from a head injury and Scott went on as substitute.

Thompson who had been a hero for Rothes in the first half brought off a great save when Jenkins forced his way through to fire in from close range.

But Clydebank were showing up better against the wind than Rothes had done in the first half and they equalised in 59 minutes when Rankin hit the ball into the rood of the net from a Moy cross. The winger was booked shortly afterwards following a tussle Comrie.

Exchanges became extremely tough with players going down all over the place, and eventually Small had to be taken off with a leg injury, Wark coming on in his place.

With eight minutes to go Clydebank got a penalty when Moy was brought down by McLean. The inside man took the kick himself and made no mistake.

Clydebank were just worth their win on their second half showing. Frank Russell, although he did not get his name on the scoresheet, was the most active of the forwards.