Arthurlie 2
Clydebank 0
League (Super Premier Division)

Match Report

Clydebank produced their worst performance of the season at the worst possible time going down meekly by two goals to nil against bottom side Arthurlie. Only four points separated the sides going into the match, and a positive result for the Bankies would have made it a tall order for the Barrhead men to make up the points gap. Unfortunately there is now only a point between the clubs and with Arthurlie having a game in hand it means the Bankies are back skating on thin ice.

The players of course must take the blame for such a shocking performance, but boss McAnespie must shoulder the bulk of it by getting his team selection and tactics completely wrong. Lining up with what looked like a 4-3-3 with Higgins spearing the attack supported on either side by Cunningham and McClair. Strangely, he played Reece Pearson in an advanced midfield position which was completely out of the blue and destined to fail. And so it did. Pearson was simply unable to do anything in this position in an all too familiar story for him. He was hooked at half time only a couple of weeks ago against Gartcairn, and sure enough it happened again here. McAnespie appears to have a real blind spot for Pearson. He wisely cleared out all the failures from the first half of the season but still Pearson remains. Hopefully, this has finally woken the manager up.

The match itself saw the Bankies go behind to a sixth minute free kick from McAleenan which set out the stall for the rest of the match. The pitch was unplayable, and it was next to impossible to play the ball on the deck, but Bankies persisted in doing so giving the ball away time and time again. This was made worse with the formation supplying no width. This meant whenever the defence tried to build up play from the back they had no clue what to do with ball due to the lack of movement in front of them and the ineptness of the midfield to impose themselves on the game. It was desperate stuff and easily the worst half of football from Clydebank all season.

Thankfully Shelvey replaced Pearson at the break and the line-up was along much more familiar lines in the second half. However, Arthurlie’s risk free football was working well for them. They took no chances by keeping a rigid back four that sat deep and invited Clydebank to break them down. Unfortunately, the first half malaise could not be reversed despite it being an improved second half performance. With 19 minutes remaining Arthurlie’s best player James Marks added a second with a mishit shot that went in off the post. I’m not sure if Arthurlie had any other shots of note in the match, but they didn’t have to work too hard for their win, as Clydebank pretty much handed it to them.

This result has put the clubs league status in the top division in jeopardy again, and a huge improvement will be required against Kilbirnie at the weekend. Ryan Deas, Matt McLean and Keeper Marc Waters are the only players who came out of this game with any credit.

Match report written by Stuart McBay