Clydebank 2
Kilwinning Rgrs 3
League (Super Premier Division)

Match Report

Clydebank were simply outclassed by league leaders Kilwinning Rangers who played for an hour with only ten men. In one of the most entertaining matches of the season, the Bankies went down by three goals to two but were handed a lesson in motivation, speed, hunger and intensity. The Bankies played their part in the match but the gulf in class was evident over the piece.

Jordan Shelvey gave the Bankies a dream start after only three minutes when he won the ball in midfield and drove towards the visitor’s goal. He played in Cunningham who found space to shoot, but Wardrope dived to his left to push the ball out. Shelvey who had continued his run followed in to tap the ball into the net. From there on in Kilwinning completely dominated.

Kilwinning didn’t create too much in the way of clear cut chances in the first half, but they peppered the Bankies box with a lot of cross balls that were subject to desperate defending. Clydebank should have gone two up when Matthew McLean sent a pin point pass 50 yards up the park. Shelvey controlled the ball superbly putting him in the clear between two Kilwinning defenders, but he rushed the shot, prodding it just over the bar.

The visitors were reduced to ten men after 33 minutes. McCloskey who had already been booked was adjudged by the ref to have pulled down Shelvey who had managed to get his body in front of the defender. I think I would not have been happy with this decision if the positions were reversed as it seemed to be a touch on the soft side. Kilwinning were undeterred by this and continued to push the Bankies back and got their reward just before the break when Hanvey made space for himself on the edge of box before rifling the ball low into the corner of the net.

The second half continued in much the same vein as the Bankies looked more like the team with the ten men. The difference was that Kilwinning were making serious in-roads into the Bankies defence and creating several chances. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team with ten men create so much space. The Bankies defence were being pulled left and right. Twice the Bankies had major let-offs as Kilwinning missed straightforward chances. Strangely, such was The Buffs intensity that they looked vulnerable to the counter attack and the Bankies never looked out of it.

The real turning point for me was the substitution of Jordan Shelvey who appeared to be limping. The further removal of John Cunningham for a midfielder signified that the Bankies were hoping to snatch a draw. Shelvey had been the player who had been winning the ball for Clydebank attacks and his absence was keenly felt.

Against all the odds the Bankies went in front after 72 minutes from a corner kick. Under pressure the keeper fumbled the ball in the box and after a stramash in the six yard box, Reece Pearson was in the right place at the right time to smash the ball high into the net. One minute later Kilwinning brought on Ryan Nisbet from the bench, and one further minute on he drew the sides level. A long ball from the left found him completely unmarked at the back post and he skilfully sidefooted the ball back across the goal and into the net. How a team with ten men were afforded that amount of space was criminal.

At this stage, you couldn’t see the Bankies holding on. The avenues of attack were many and substitute Nisbet was all over it. With ten minutes remaining he scored the winning goal when he cracked in a superb twenty yard shot that Waters just couldn’t keep out. He should have actually grabbed a quick fire hat trick when he missed what was the easiest of the three chances he had.

Kilwinning are not top of the league without good reason and it was always going to be a tough match for the Bankies. They were just too good for us, even with ten men. If I was going to single out the disappointing aspect of the match it was how much space they seemed to have. Sometimes it’s hard to make having the extra man count when a team sits in against you, but when they are trying to attack you should be able to exploit the spaces. In comparison to the Bankies, Kilwinning were direct, strong, purposeful, full of running, motivated and a number of other positive descriptive words. I struggle to remember seeing such a committed performance from a Clydebank team, and Kilwinning should be commended for that. I just wonder if we need to review our signing policy. Too often we have a team made up of skinny under-developed players who either don’t want to compete or are just physically unable to. We’ve been under the cosh quite a lot recently in matches and its not difficult to see where the problems lie. If we can get one more win under our belt then we should be safe for next season. It will be interesting to see who McAnespie keeps from the current squad and what type of player he brings in.

Match report written by Stuart McBay