Hurlford United 6
Clydebank 3
League ((Super Premier Division))

Match Report

The curtain came down on Clydebank’s season with a 6-3 hammering at the hands of Hurlford United at Blair Park. Putting the result aside for a moment, if the remit for this season was to stay in this league then it is job done. The bonus of the Central League Cup makes it a decent season, on the face of it. There have been some undoubted highs but there were also a lot of torturous defeats along the way.

Take this game today. The Bankies conceded six goals to Hurlford. Add to that fives again Cumnock and Auchinleck, fours against Pollok and Kilwinning. There were the awful cup exits to Kennoway Star Hearts and East Kilbride Thistle to join those. All but one of these games was away from home and that is where one of the major problems is. Only four points were gained on our travels all season. There is also an issue with a colossal amount of players turning out for the club with 38 names making the team sheet this season. This will have to come down to a reasonable number next season for any continuity. Even today, the bench had three U-17s listed.

To quickly summarise the game, the Bankies got off to a flyer scoring twice in nine minutes. Higgins scored with an absolute screamer, and an alert Jordan Shelvey knocked in his 16th of the season to make it two. It had me remembering a game down at Somerset park in the late 1980s when the Bankies went two goals to the good before the match had settled down. Sure enough the Bankies lost 3-2 that day. There was a similar air about this match as Clydebank hadn’t really done anything to earn their lead. The uh-oh moment came soon enough through a well worked goal that saw Jenkins side foot home. Clydebank proceeded to go in at the break 3-2 down when Robertson scored on the rebound after Morrison touched his penalty kick onto the bar. Caddis then put Hurlford in the lead when he had acres of space to take the ball round Morrison and put the ball away. In fairness the Bankies did have other chances as well, and may well have scored again in the first half.

The game was killed off 9 minutes into the second half when Jenkins scored his second. Robertson added his second as well with 15 minutes left to make it 5-2. Higgins also scored his double a minute later to briefly reduce the deficit until McKenzie bettered Higgins first half screamer with one of his own to complete the scoring at 6-3.

Looking ahead then to next season it is hardly doom and gloom. McAnespie got a pretty ordinary side promoted last season. He then signed a lot of players who simply weren’t up to the task. At the half way stage the Bankies had only one win and one draw to their name. He moved most of them on and brought in a whole raft of new signings. Six matches out of eleven were won in the second half of the season which was a massive improvement. Of the 16 in the squad for the first league match, only seven were in the last. The newer players are definitely better. We aren’t going to win the league with them, but with additions in the right areas we can certainly hope to make progress. The squad is actually in a good position at the moment. It is a bit weak in term of numbers, despite 38 different pulling on the shirt this season. This gives McAnespie the chance to really choose who he wants to keep, and hopefully to bring in the right types of players to bolster the squad. Personally, I would like to see a more competitive edge to our side. Hurlford know how the game works at this level. A mobile team will give them a hiding, but when most teams are punting the ball from one end to the other incessantly then willingness and strength go a long way. We will beat a Hurlford or Auchinleck on our day (as we did this season), but we are more likely to be over run by them (as we also were this season). Exciting times are ahead for the club with league reconstruction for next season and a possible return to the seniors beyond that.

Match report written by Stuart McBay