Beith Juniors 2
Clydebank 0
League (WoSFL Premier)

Match Report

Having a break from football last Saturday did the Bankies absolutely no favours as they were totally ineffectual in a turgid 2-0 defeat at Beith this afternoon. The Ayrshire side played the last half hour of the match with ten men after O’Neill’s dismissal, but other than having a bit more possession the Bankies struggled to get anywhere near the home goal for virtually the whole match.

Beith played with more bite and aggression, and after a fairly even first half were worthy winners. The match was scrappy for the most part with hardly any shots at goal throughout from either side.

The Bellsdale men got the counters when it mattered, but Clydebank basically handed the home side their goals with Hodge and Slattery giving the ball away to set up the two goals.

The main contentious issue in the proceedings was Jamie Darroch’s headed “goal” on the stroke of half time from a Lee Gallacher corner which was disallowed for an infringement by Creag Little. It was a terrible decision, and it may have been a different second half had the goal stood.

Strangely, Gordon Moffat decided to alter the formation for this game. The 4-2-3-1 generally serves the Bankies well in away games and it was a surprise to move away from this to a 3-5-2. If we need to change things it is at Holm Park where teams tend to sit in against us more.

With the forwards we have, I’m in favour of playing two up front, but the formation just didn’t work. The three at the back means that full backs Hodge and MacKenzie needed to provide the width, but it is hard to think of a time when either man got forward to any great degree.

However, the main problems stemmed from the midfield. Frazer Johnstone played relatively well in his usual holding position, but we got nothing out of Nicky Little and Lee Gallacher again today.

The Nicky Little situation is becoming more of an issue as time goes on. I’ve been reluctant to comment on it, but it is becoming ever more detrimental to the team.

Nicky Little is not a midfielder and never has been. Playing - for him – in a deeper role does not work. McGhie and McAnespie before Moffat tried to play Nicky in a less advanced role occasionally and always had to revert to using him as a foil for the main striker. It is part of the reason why Little’s season at Pollok didn’t work out as they tried to shoehorn him into a formation that didn’t suit.

If you go back to 2018-19 when Nicky scored an incredible 28 goals, he was a floating forward with freedom, playing normally with Jordan Shelvey. Nicky is a reactive instinctive player, whose best work comes in the last third with the ball in front of him.

As soon as you drop him back his best traits are taken away from him. He is not offering anything in his current position. If Moffat can’t play him in the position where he does most damage, or that position doesn’t exist in the preferred formation, then it is hard to see where he fits into the side at all.

With regards to today’s game, the Bankies hardly tested Beith’s keeper Carlin at all during the 90 minutes. The home side, kicking down the slope started the better of the two sides, but save for a wayward shot from Noble created next to nothing.

The Bankies slowly edged into the game, with Gallacher’s 25 yard free kick over the bar after 19 minutes the first effort on goal for the visitors.

After that Weir had a couple of opportunities. Strike partner Mulcahy set him up after pressurising the dithering Beith defence. Weir’s well struck shot from outside the box brought out a fine save from Carlin on his right hand side. This was about Carlin’s only real save of the match.

The keeper did have to be off his line smartly when a dinked Gallacher through ball was controlled by Weir, but Carlin snuffed out the danger before the striker could get his shot away.

Beith took the lead after 36 minutes in a shocker of a goal for the Bankies defence. Starting off with Hodge giving the ball away deep in his own half, the subsequent efforts to clear it were almost comical. Only Jamie Darroch who bravely got his head to the ball to prevent the goal being scored earlier is exempt. After a bit of pinball, the ball found it’s way to back post for diver extraordinaire Paul Frize to prod home.

The Bankies thought they had equalised when the aforementioned Darroch header was chopped off by referee Ross Clark who had a shocking afternoon. Not only for this decision, but his general poor handling of the game throughout.

The last good chance for the Bankies came in the 48th minute when possibly the best footballing move of the game saw a cross from the right reach Danny MacKenzie at the far post. Unfortunately, he bulleted his header wide of the post under pressure from a defender.

The game descended into a bookathon after this with zero football, and a ramping up of tempers and yellow cards. The ref was unable to calm things down, and the inevitable red card came just after the hour.

Danny O’Neill scythed down Josh Weir on the left wing for which he was booked, but unable to keep his mouth shut, he was dismissed seconds later.

Clydebank saw more of the ball thereafter, but were unable to get anywhere close to the Beith goal, thanks to a determined, and well drilled defence.

The now all too familiar throwing the kitchen sink philosophy led to Beith killing the game with seven minutes remaining. Joe Slattery from an attacking situation passed the ball directly to Jay McKay who broke forward, and sent an exquisite pass with the outside of his foot to Josh Fowler.

Fowler raced into the box, turned the desperately returning Bankies defence, before hammering the ball high into the net finishing the game.

The Bankies are performing less well than the sum of their parts, and apart from the odd good performance, the general direction of travel is less than favourable. It is hard to tell which way the season is going to go at the moment, and we can only hope the management can get the players operating at a higher and more consistent level than we have seen so far this season.

We have cup football over the next two weeks with Eglinton away in West of Scotland Cup followed by Largs at home in the South Challenge Cup. These are our most likely avenues of some success this season, so we need to get our act together.

Match report written by Stuart McBay