Irvine Meadow 1
Clydebank 1
League (WoSFL Premier)

Match Report

After Saturday’s League opening debacle against Benburb, the Bankies gave a much better account of themselves at Irvine Meadow, but question marks remain as this game could easily have been lost with a 94th minute penalty being required to gain a point.

Undoubtedly, the Bankies played with a lot more purpose and intent especially in the first half, and created some gilt-edged goal scoring opportunities, however the same could be said for Meadow who were denied by some very good goalkeeping from Keiran Hughes who made three great saves.

It was the home side who had the first chance of the game after five minutes when Cammy Ross crossed from the left and found Brennan at the back post and his low volley to Hughes’ left hand side was well stopped with a smart dive.

The response from the Bankies came from a low Gallacher free kick which was parried by Waters right in front of Niven, but the big defender was leaning back and rifled the ball over the bar when he should have burst the net.

Just two minutes later the ball was in the back of the Irvine Meadow net after Nicky low stole the ball and quickly fired it across the face of goal for Collins to cutely knock past Waters. Unfortunately the linesman had raised his flag for what must have been a tight offside decision.

Clydebank continued to press and from a corner taken by Lee Gallacher, Oisin McHugh should have scored when unmarked at the back post, but he made a poor connection with his head and the ball skidded past the post.

Meadow were always lurking in the background and they could never be ruled out and Baird had two shots at goal in the space of two minutes. The second of which brought out a quite tremendous save from Hughes who tipped the ball over at the junction of post and bar.

The last real chance of the first half for the Bankies almost resulted in an own goal when a Mulcahy cross from the right was intercepted by Fyfe. It took a full length dive from Waters to claw the ball away from the goal. Thomas Collins was following in but his shot on the turn cleared the bar by around a foot.

The best way to sum up the first period was that of a much better effort, but still not quite where we want to be, and the opening twenty minutes of the second half reinforced the fact that we still have a long way to go.

During that period, the Bankies essentially fell out of the game with an early 20 yard shot from Nicky Low being the only discernible effort on goal. Slattery, Johnstone and Low were not making any kind of impression on proceedings, and whilst Meadow were hardly setting the world on fire either, they had the territorial advantage.

This led to the home side taking the lead from the penalty spot after Chris Black bundled Brennan over just inside the box. This had come after quite a sustained period of the Bankies giving the ball way to the opposition time and time again. Substitute Kerr tucked the ball away to give the home side the lead.

At this point, it was difficult to see a how the Bankies were going to get anything out of the game, as they started to make Isaac Kerr look like an international by sending every long ball straight to the big defender’s heading zone.

To give credit where credit is due, the substitutes did give some added impetus and for the last ten minutes the Bankies belatedly began to trouble the Meadow defence who were trying to see out the game.

There were some moments where we got close, but the final pass was lacking or a long range shot was tried, and it took until 86th minute before a real chance was created and should have been scored.

It came from a slide rule pass from Grant who found Kelly running down the left channel. The winger took a touch and squared it for McGonigle, but from no more than six or seven yards he got the ball tangled in his feet and the chance was gone.

McGonigle nearly made up for it a minute later when he lifted the ball over the defence, and Nicky Little met the ball on the run, but his header scraped the outside of the post with Waters beaten.

It was in the fourth minute of stoppage time that the Bankies got the break they probably deserved. A Long free kick by McHugh was headed by Niven across the edge of the box where McGonigle volleyed first time onto the hands of one possibly two different Meadow defenders for a clear penalty.

Nicky Little strode up and confidently placed the ball into the corner to win a late point for the Bankies. Perhaps if the game had another five minutes in it, then Clydebank would have gone on to win but they had 90 minutes beforehand to do that.

Overall, an improved display, with a lull at the start of the second half. I’m still not so sure of our prospects as I’m expecting Meadow and Benburb to be bottom six clubs this season, so still needing to be convinced. The intensity levels were closer to where they need to be, but this is a hard league we are in. On paper, we have a competitive looking squad with some pundits tipping us for the title, but it won’t come to us. We need to go out and make it happen.

We have Glenafton coming to Holm Park this weekend. They have a very small squad after losing several players in the summer. This is another game we need to be looking to win to kick start our season.

Match report written by Stuart McBay