Kilsyth Ath 0
Clydebank 5
West of Scotland Football League Cup (2nd Round)

Match Report

This wasn’t the biggest mis-match the world has ever seen, but it was certainly a dreadfully one-sided encounter with the Bankies easily defeating fourth Division leaders Kilsyth Athletic by five goals to nil at the local Sportsfield in the West of Scotland Cup.

The only reason the score was only five was due to the Bankies wayward shooting, and on another day double figures wouldn’t have been out of the question.

Kilsyth are running away with the newly formed Fourth Division with a 100% record in the league, though notably not keeping any clean sheets in their thirteen games. Therefore, this fixture would have been met with a little more apprehension by Gordon Moffat than the previous round when Clydebank knocked 14 past Kilsyth’s league colleagues, Eglinton.

However, there was never really any cause for concern as his players took the lead after just six minutes from Matt Niven who collected the rebound from his own blocked header to prod the ball into the net.

In the five minutes, that preceded the goal the Bankies could have had the ball in the net on umpteen occasions with Hamish McKinlay and Ciaran Mulcahy the main offenders. The fact that neither of those two were on the scoresheet and were later substituted probably tells you about the kind of day they had.

With the shooting boots having been left in the dressing room, another Eglinton scoreline looked out of the question.

After many more missed chances the Bankies finally increased their lead after 26 minutes with the goal of the game. Lee Gallacher intercepted a poor pass out from defence, and spotting the goalkeeper out of position he skilfully lobbed him from at least 35 yards from goal.

Shortly afterwards, The Bankies lost the services of Joe Slattery following a poor tackle by Jordan Carr. The tackle was high with studs up, and the midfielder was incredibly lucky only to be shown the yellow card.

The remainder of the first half saw Kilsyth have a couple of half chances of their own. Perhaps a better side may have made something out of them, but the Bankies defence were alert enough to deal with them.

The second half was essentially a one way procession with the home side offering next to nothing from an attacking perspective. However, the Bankies were lacking that extra wee bit of cutting edge, and it was no surprise when Higgins and Kelly replaced McKinlay and Mulcahy.

And just to show how it should be done, Connor Higgins scored with his first touch of the ball, latching onto a through pass from Larry McMahon.

You could see that another couple of goals were likely to added before the end, and the other substitute created the fourth after 75 minutes. Alan Kelly has a natural ability with the ball at his feet, and if the management can harness this on a regular basis then the Bankies will have an exciting player on their hands. On this occasion his footwork took him past several players on the left hand side, before he released the ball to Lee Gallacher in the penalty box. The winger steadied himself before thrashing the ball left-footed into the net.

Skipper Nicky Little completed the scoring five minutes from the end with a strong header from a fine Danny MacKenzie cross.

This was as good a game as any to get the players some competitive action under their belts after not playing for over a month. Despite their league position, Troon next Saturday will be a tough test having already beaten us earlier in the season.

Overall, it was probably sub-par today. Lee Gallacher, Frazer Johnstone and Danny MacKenzie were the pick of the Bankies players today with Alan Kelly and Connor Higgins not doing their chances any harm.

Kilsyth’s Lewis Taylor, and Jamie McAllister who retired with a rib injury were the ones who stood out for me on the home side.

Match report written by Stuart McBay