Hurlford United 1
Clydebank 0
League (WoSFL Premier)

Match Report

Clydebank lost 1-0 at Hurlford United tonight in the West of Scotland League as the Blair Park side completed a league double over the Bankies for the second season in a row.

There is no doubt that Hurlford bring out the very worst in this Clydebank side. We seem to have no answer to their style of play, but the lacklustre nature of this defeat left a lot to be desired. I was going to suggest that Hurlford are a bit of a bogey side for the Bankies, but for that to be true you would probably have had to have played quite well, not got the breaks and still lost.

The second half in particular was just awful as the Bankies posed next to no threat and managed just one solitary shot on goal; a rather limp effort from Liam McGonigle from around ten yards on the right hand side.

Not one Clydebank player came anywhere near a pass mark and what is for sure is they owe the travelling support a proper performance against Glenafton on Saturday. It was simply not good enough. You could try and excuse the players after their loss in the West of Scotland Cup final on Friday, but we were so far off the mark tonight I’m not sure that would wash.

The goal that settled the match was scored after just nine minutes with the first real chance in the game. A cross from the right forced Jamie Donnelly to push the ball away out to the left and it was immediately returned back into the box.

From around 12 yards, Wilson sclaffed the ball, and it inexplicably squirmed under Donnelly’s body for a poor goal to lose. Donnelly struggled with a few shots in the first half as he palmed at least another two shots out in front of himself forcing his defence to desperately hack the ball away.

The only period the Bankies made any kind of mark in the game was in the middle of the first half. During this period Gallacher missed a couple of good chances, the best of which was a one on one which he tried to side foot past Taylor, but the keeper made a fine diving save to his right hand side.

There was at least some hope going into the second half that the Bankies could get back into the game if they could up their levels. However, it was not dis-similar to the Talbot match on Friday where we just acquiesced and allowed the game to get away from us without so much as a whimper.

The second half was played almost exclusively in the Clydebank half of the pitch, and it was a poor spectacle. For all their play, Hurlford didn’t create too much either. Former Bankie Alan Jack’s son, Josh had a couple of fine efforts, one of which smacked the crossbar, and there were one or two other efforts that could have put the score beyond doubt, but were passed up.

With many West of Scotland League sides making ground improvements, it seemed rather odd finishing a match in darkness, but I suppose the dull light suited the mood in the end.

In some respects, the season can’t end soon enough now. The league campaign has been a bit disappointing with way too many defeats, and overall we don’t seemed to have performed as well as we did last season.

Taking this fixture in isolation, it would be good if we could solve the Hurlford conundrum next season and maybe take some points off them for a change.

Match report written by Stuart McBay