Clydebank 5
Troon 1
League (WoSFL Premier)

Match Report

The Bankies put their recent bad run of results behind them with a sound thrashing of a really disappointing Troon side in the West of Scotland League. The 5-1 scoreline could easily have been doubled if the players had remembered their shooting boots, particularly Callum Graham who missed a hatful of chances before finally bagging a double early in the second half.

It was also a red letter day for Frazer Johnstone who was given the captain’s armband to mark his 100th game for the club. He can be happy with his day’s work in a game that the Bankies dominated pretty much from start to finish apart from an early flourish from the visitors in the first half.

In terms of the line-up, Gordon Moffat resisted the temptation to bring back some of the big-hitters whose form had been lacking in the run of four consecutive defeats. He stuck by and large with the same team from the improved performance at Darvel with just Matt Niven replacing Jamie Darroch, and Oisin McHugh coming in for the injured Danny MacKenzie.

Sticking to the same 4-4-2 formation from the previous week, the Bankies got off to their usual slow start. This was Troon’s busiest period in the game, but it only produced one reasonable opportunity for the Seasiders when Leyton Dunlop’s dragged shot from the edge of the box had Kieran Hughes scrambling across his goal-line to put the ball out for a corner.

That was about it for the visitors. Once the Bankies found their way, and more importantly took the lead, it was one way traffic. Oisin McHugh’s strong runs down the left wing were causing problems for the Troon defence and Thomas Collins was unlucky when he connected with a cross ball only to see it cleared from the line.

McHugh took a shot himself which went wide before the Bankies opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 22 minutes. I’ve had the benefit of seeing it back before writing this and I have to say it is incredibly soft. I don’t think Alan Kelly is even claiming for it when he was “brought down” in the box. No wonder the Troon bench were having a collective coronary.

We had a dodgy one given against us last week, so as they say, these things even themselves out. Thomas Collins took it and easily despatched the ball into the net sending Burgess the wrong way.

Alan Kelly, moments later, missed a bit of an open goal from a Hodge cross, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt as he had an angle to slot the ball home from. It was just after the half hour that the Bankies doubled their lead. It was poor stuff from Troon as they failed to pick up Nicky Low standing at the edge of the box from a Clydebank free kick on the left.

Rather than cross the ball into the box, Kelly simply slipped it to Low. The Bankies midfielder hit a shot which was deflected past Burgess by Liam McGonigle with the faintest of touches but enough to turn it inside the post.

The rest of the first half belonged to Callum Graham. He had five clear cut chances to score, and he missed the lot of them. I won’t describe any of them to save him the embarrassment but he could have killed the match stone dead and had the match ball under his arms for the rest of the players to autograph after the game.

Thankfully he found his goalscoring touch in the second half, netting twice in the first eight minutes. He almost contrived to miss the first one, when he had a tap in from two feet, but just about scuffed the ball in with the bottom of his boot.

His second after 53 minutes was much better when he headed a Liam McGonigle cross into the bottom corner via the post. In between his goals, Troon notched a consolation when Gilroy got in behind Creag Little and his low cross was first timed into the net by Leyton Dunlop.

The Bankies sat back for a while on their three goal lead, and a period of inactivity followed. It was only once Gordon Moffat made a whole raft of changes that the goalscoring threat returned.

Another four of five goals could easily have been scored and a record score may have been achieved, but fortunately for Troon there was just one more goal added to the total. It came from Lee Gallacher after 77 minutes, when he latched onto a cutback and opened his body up perfectly to allow him to side foot the ball high into the net.

I’m not going to get carried away and say this is a return to form, as we need to back it up against a much stronger opponent in St Cadocs next week. There is little doubt that Troon were one of the poorest outfits we’ve seen this season. However, it was pleasing to see many of the players displaying more readily what we expect from them.

Quite possibly the most important aspect was the amount of goalscoring chances that were created. We have really struggled in the attacking front over the past month, but this was more like the kind of display we were seeing week in week out before the New Year.

The best player on the pitch for me today was Liam McGonigle, particularly for his first half performance. As usual, you can't fault Thomas Collins for his application, and Nicky Low was much more influential before he went off.

Unfortunately, Beith, Auchinleck and St Cadocs all won today. We can possibly knock St Cadocs out of the running next week leaving a two way fight between the two Ayrshire clubs. It is now out of our hands, however we can continue to keep ourselves involved if we can go on a winning run, and hope that there is some kind of mutual implosion elsewhere.

Match report written by Stuart McBay