Clydebank 0
Renfrew 2
Friendly (Violet Marshall Memorial Cup)

Match Report

After yesterday’s poor showing against Ashfield, not many Clydebank fans decided to make the effort to return to Renfrew for the lunch time kick off for the third and fourth placed play-off match. And to be fair, they probably made the right decision as the Bankies lost again to lower league opposition in the shape of host club, Renfrew

It might not mean much in the grand scheme of things but had we won yesterday, we would have taken a good crowd with us today and winning the tournament would have been a great confidence booster and got the support right behind the players.

Instead, we had to endure another tedious 90 minutes of lacklustre football from the Bankies. There is no doubt we are missing bodies due to holidays, injuries and a wee bout of illness running through the squad at the moment, but the team that took to the field should have had enough about them to take care of Renfrew.

It would be churlish not to concede that the Bankies played a lot better in the first half hour. Had we brought our shooting boots with us, we would most likely have went into the break a few goals to the good.

However, the spectre of last season seems to be still hanging over us as we proceeded to miss a litany of chances, only to concede from a penalty kick and go in at the break a goal down.

We had easily eight decent goalscoring opportunities in the first 45, and I don’t think we hit the target once. In no particular order, Ciaran Mulcahy missed a fairly simple volley from eight yards hitting the ball wildly off target. Joe Slattery missed a straight forward header with no one around him from a similar distance. Thomas Collins had a couple of efforts go wide from the edge of the box before going off target from the edge of the six yard box after Mulcahy had headed the ball across to him.

In inevitable style, the Bankies ended up going behind after all this. Liam McGonigle was the villain after he clattered into Craig Dallas as Renfrew broke upfield quickly. The winger had taken a couple of hard tackles earlier in the match, and had been pulled up for a couple himself. It was wise to take him off at the interval.

Scott Morton took the penalty kick and side-footed the ball into the bottom right corner scoring easily.

Once again, the second half produced no great response. Apart from a glancing header from Joe Slattery that drifted wide with 49 minutes on the clock, the game settled down into a true non-event.

Virtually nothing of any note happened until we reached the last fifteen minutes. At this point the Bankies began to make some more scoring opportunities. Firstly Chris Black volleyed over the bar with Nicky Little in a seemingly better decision.

Callum Graham was unlucky with a volley from a half-cleared corner kick only for Robinson to bravely block on the line by throwing his body in front of the ball. There were a couple of moments of pinball in the Renfrew penalty box, but the ball was intent in staying out of the goal.

Not so at the other end, as Renfrew broke away in stoppage time and Dom Innes cracked a terrific strike from the edge of the box to make certain of the win.

Clydebank did have three decent penalty shouts in the second half but it is desperate stuff if we are relying on that to get a result against lower league opposition. It also should be noted that a number of Renfrew’s subs were from their U-20s side, so it further enforces how poorly we are doing at the moment.

When all is said and done, we have no option but to put this weekend to one side. We need to concentrate on putting in a confidence building performance against Jeanfield Swifts at Holm Park next Saturday, and being prepared for the league opener against Benburb the week after. We do have a squad with quality players at this level. It just needs to be put together.