Clydebank 3
Glas Perthshire 2
Sectional League Cup (Group 6)

Match Report

Although the result suggests a tight game, the reality was a comfortable victory for the Bankies. The loss of two goals in injury time made the match seem closer than the preceding 90 minutes had shown.

Perthshire were hugely disappointing considering the momentum they had built up last season as they reached the Super League for the first time. The Bankies, with Ally Graham making his debut and Paul Allum returning to the club, would have been expecting a much sterner test than they received.

The Bankies controlled the first half in almost its entirety. There was plenty of pressure and lots of goal attempts, but nothing that unduly worried the Perthshire keeper. New boy Graham had the best of the early chances when he was put through on the left hand side from a cute McPherson free kick, but he blasted the ball into the side net

The opening goal came after 28 minutes when the Perthshire defence failed to clear the ball at the edge of the box with Paul Allum sliding in to win it. While lying on the ground Allum swung a leg at the ball and it rifled low into the net on the goalkeeper’s right hand side.

Perthshire briefly woke up just as the Bankies defence took a quick nap Gibson waltzed past three men, and was unlucky to see his placed shot rebound off the upright. Normal service was soon resumed and on three occasions the Bankies should have increased the lead. Gold shot wide from just inside the box, then Paul Allum cannoned the ball off a defender on the line with the keeper posted missing. Finally Calder denied McPherson with a fine stop following a fantastic turn by the Bankies no 9.

McPherson did get on the score sheet a minute into the restart following indecision between Calder and his defence. The Bankies striker opened his account for the season by smartly lifting the ball over the keepers head and into the empty net.

The game never really got going after that and it took until just after an hour for it to liven up when Wilson was bundled over unnecessarily in the box. McPherson took the spot kick which Calder touched superbly onto the post. Unfortunately for the keeper the ball returned to McPherson who made no mistake this time.

The Bankies went into automatic pilot and a convincing win was on the cards, and seemed even more so when ex-Bankie, Paul Craig was given a straight red card with minutes remaining for lashing out at McPherson when he was on the ground. It was poor show considering the ref had not issued a single yellow card up until this point.

So with the match meandering to an end Perthshire pulled one back with Sinky Soutar poking the ball home at the near post. A goal was something Soutar was unable to for the Bankies in his 140 outings for the club. Moments later and it was 3-2 as Perthshire converted from the penalty spot. The unlikeliest of comebacks was not to materialise as the ref brought proceedings to a close.

A winning start for the Bankies in a tussle they controlled for 90 minutes, and the management will be happy with that. They just have to remember that they also have to play during injury time.

Match report written by Stuart McBay