Kello Rovers 0
Clydebank 3
West of Scotland Football League Cup (3rd Round)

Match Report

Clydebank breezed into the quarter final of the West of Scotland Cup with a routine dismissal of Kello Rovers by three goals to nil this afternoon. The Nithside Park side finished fourth bottom in their Conference division and will be plying their trade in the fourth tier in the West of Scotland League next season and the gulf in class showed. Kello never really looked like they had any intention in trying to win the game at any point as their objective appeared more to avoid a thrashing, and to their credit they defended very well particularly in the first half.

The Bankies for their part never really clicked at any point apart from two spells at the beginning of each half. It was all about the first goal, and once that came there was only going to be one winner. The home side managed to frustrate the Bankies in the first half, as the opening burst of pressure failed to bring a goal.

The best two chances fell to Ciaran Mulcahy who was unlucky not to score with headers. The first came from a McGonigle cross, and keeper Dunsmuir was beaten all ends up but the ball rattled off the cross bar. Little supplied the cross for the next chance, but this time the keeper made a fantastic fingertip save from Mulcahy’s header. A cricket score looked on the cards at this point, but when the early goal didn’t arrive, Kello settled well into their defensive pattern.

Goal scoring opportunities were becoming just that bit harder to come by, and the Bankies could probably have done with being more direct as the bumpy pitch was difficult to play much in the way of passing football on. With the exception of a headed effort from Little which went just wide of the upright, the best Clydebank chances came from a couple of free kicks. Little and McGonigle both hit the target with their shots but neither gave Dunsmuir much to worry about.

The Bankies burst into life in the second half, in a similar way as they did in the first and this time they were reward with two goals in a couple of minutes. The first was a belter of a strike from Lee Gallacher. Nicky Little supplied the assist with a terrific crossfield pass to Gallacher. The Bankies winger took the ball to the edge of the penalty box, moved on to his left foot and smashed an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner. Time 51 minutes.

With all Kello’s good work undone, they proceeded to lose a second goal just a minute later and it was another fine strike. Gallacher was the provider this time, nipping in front of Struthers and laying the ball off to McGonigle who cracked it into the same corner giving the keeper no chance.

If there was a criticism of the Bankies it would be that they never really pressed home their advantage after this. The game was played almost exclusively in the Kello half of the pitch, but there wasn’t a great deal of cutting edge in the last third.

It took until nine minutes from time for the third and final goal to be scored. It was a fairly text book effort with Matt Niven getting on the end of a McGonigle corner and heading into the unguarded far corner of the goal.

The Bankies passage to the quarter final has been fairly straight-forward but now face a tough task as they visit Pollok at Newlandsfield Park in the next round. This will be the fourth meeting between the sides and the Bankies should be optimistic about getting a result as they recorded victory there just a few weeks ago.

Clydebank conclude their league programme next Saturday with a visit to Barrfields park to play Largs. It is likely that Thistle will be involved in the relegation battle all the way to their final match, so this will not be an “end of season” encounter and the Bankies can expect a tough test.

Match report written by Stuart McBay