Irvine Meadow 2
Clydebank 2
League (WoSFL Premier)

Match Report

Well, we finally drew a game. Tonight’s two all draw down at Irvine Meadow was the first time we had shared the points in over a year when we snatched a last minute equaliser against Rutherglen Glencairn last April.

In truth, the Bankies didn’t play all that well but scored two superb goals against the run of play in the first half to go into the break with a healthy lead. Unfortunately, Oisin McHugh got on the wrong side of his marker and gave away a penalty receiving his marching orders for his troubles.

That put his team-mates in a perilous situation, but the defence coped admirably until Kyle Faulds scored a great goal earning his side the draw that they deserved over the piece.

For this game the Bankies made just two changes with Nicky Low and Creag Little being replaced by Larry McMahon and Danny MacKenzie. Ben McLernan kept his place in the side giving the youngster another opportunity to impress.

Irvine Meadow were in the ascendancy in the early stages, as the Bankies struggled to get into any sort of rhythm. Indeed with their first sight of goal after ten minutes they should have been ahead.

Ex-Bankie Paul Byrne was free in the left hand side of the penalty box, and he crossed low and hard for Louis Kerr who could only stick out a leg and divert the ball towards the goal.

The ball struck the underside of the bar, and if you enlarge the picture accompanying this report you will see that it looks that the ball is over the line, but the ref looked at his assistant and signalled play on.

This let off was quickly followed by another as Jamie Darroch had to clear from the line after the ball broke for O’Donnel at the edge of the box, and his side-footed effort was headed for the bottom corner of the goal.

Clydebank slowly worked their way into the game with Alan Kelly the most prominent player on show. He was having a lot of joy on the wing, but he was perhaps just a little too confident as he was taking on one man too many at times. Though it should be noted that he did create chances for McMahon and Gallacher which they didn’t convert.

The opening goal came seven minutes before the break and it was a Nicky Little special. The ball sat up for him nicely around 25 yards from goal, and we all know what happens next from this position. He hit the ball first time as sweet as a nut and his dipping shot flew into the top corner with Bysouth just a spectator.

This was the Bankies best spell in the game now and they added a second just before the break. Joe Slattery is the one player we have who can unlock a defence in the middle of the pitch, and his slide rule pass found Lee Gallacher in space on the right wing. He moved into the penalty box shuffled onto his left foot a curled a bullet shot beyond the keeper for his 12th of the season.

Clydebank looked fairly secure at the start of the second half but the penalty incident changed everything. After a protracted period after McHugh was red carded which also saw Jamie Donnelly booked, the kick was finally struck home by O’Donnel who fairly leathered the ball into the top corner.

Gordon Moffat made a couple of changes to try and hold onto the one goal lead. Niven and Mulcahy came on and both played their best games in a while. McMahon and McLernan were the duo replaced and the latter found this a tougher test, and will be starting to see what is expected at this level.

Meadow’s equalising goal came with just 14 minutes remaining, and it was another great goal. It was unfortunate for the Bankies as it looked like they had muted the Meadow attack. But a wee flash of brilliance from Faulds made the difference. The ball broke for him at the edge of the box, and he skilfully dinked it over Lee Gallacher before unleashing a rocket shot which had goal written all over it from the moment it left his boot.

In fairness, the Bankies made quite a good fist of things in the last ten minutes despite being down to ten men. McEwan should have done better with a volley that he never quite connected with properly and Niven twice from headers came close. The second one in particular drifted just beyond the post with keeper well beaten.

Meadow were themselves reduced to ten men deep in stoppage time when Isaac Kerr took out Joe Slattery with a high challenge.

So that was the last away game of the season and the Bankies extended their unbeaten run against Irvine Meadow at Meadow Park to five matches having last tasted defeat there in 2014. As far as the league is concerned we are now in fourth place on our own, and will finish there as long as we match or better Pollok’s result on Saturday.

We have one more to go at Holm Park when Rob Roy come calling. There is a chance for Nicky Little to reach another landmark as he currently sits on 27 goals for the season, just one behind his best ever total in 2018-19. His goals to game ratio this season is 0.82 which is already his best, but what a way to sign off the season if he could add a brace and beat his best ever goals tally.

Match report written by Stuart McBay