Clydebank 3
Inverurie Locos 0
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Match Report

It was a good day today! Firstly, Inverurie Loco Works were comfortably beaten 3-0 in the Bankies last pre-season friendly before the league kicks off at Gartcairn next week.

Secondly, Clydebank laid down a significant marker with the signing of defender David Syme who is amongst the most highly rated players in the West of Scotland League. It now shows the lengths a club like Clydebank have to go to in order to remain competitive in tier six of the pyramid.

The bottleneck caused by having only one promotion spot available to the Lowland League from the three feeder leagues below is surely untenable. And this has only been exacerbated by the highest spending clubs in the West of Scotland league all being unlicenced and unable to progress anyway.

And for someone like me raised in the 1970-80s, it was a joy to see the Bankies take to the field in an all-white kit. Clydebank first wore all-white back in 1975 when we went on to win the Second Division championship. The sash design that we are all used to seeing nowadays was only used for six years between 1966-72 and for the first three years the home shirt was red, and not white. In my opinion that era brought the best ever Clydebank kits, and hopefully it is here to stay.

With regards to today’s game, it was a fairly controlled performance but Gordon Moffat won’t be too happy about some sloppiness that allowed Inverurie several sights on goal particularly in the first half when the Aberdeenshire side hit the woodwork twice, one of those from Nicky Little being dispossessed.

Andy Leishman was also called into action a couple of times with important stops, none more so than saving Oisin McHugh’s bacon when he was woefully short with an attempted header back to his keeper.

Other than that, the Bankies could have run up a bit of result against the Locos, though that would probably have been harsh on the Harlaw Park side as they were competitive for most of the match. It was most likely the huge raft of substitutions that opened the match up and allowed the Bankies playmakers to open up the visitors defence ‘n the last half hour of the game.

All the goals came in the last 30 minutes of the game with Ciaran Mulcahy opening the scoring with an absolute belter. He moved on to his right foot from 25 yards out and rifled the ball into the top corner beyond Ellis who mad an acrobatic attempt to keep it out.

The second was from a well-worked corner kick routine with Matt Niven unselfishly heading the ball back across the goal for Adam Hodge to head into the net via the underside of the crossbar.

Craig Truesdale completed the scoring with a well-taken first time shot from close in after Jimmy Grant had done all the hard work down the left wing and set up the goal with a perfect low cross.

There were numerous other opportunities to increase the scoreline, but I think most people would be reasonably happy about what they saw today. David Syme had a comfortable enough afternoon, and his short settling-in period should be made easier with several ex-team mates in the Bankies ranks.

The league campaign begins next week, and you always have the most hope going into the opening game of the season. Our defence has been strengthened significantly with the arrival of Syme and keeper Leishman. We already had the second stingiest defence in the league last season, and if we can improve in this department we will be extremely difficult to beat.

It is now up to the forwards to respond to the challenge at their end. It would seem that most players can find their position in the team under threat if they don’t perform.

We travel to Gartcairn for the season opener at the MTC Park next Saturday. The Airdrie based side have added several players to their expensively assembled squad with Bronsky, Simeon and Hutton joining alongside ex-Bankies Kieran Hughes and Creag Little. This league is tougher than ever, but we look better prepared than we were last season.

Let’s see how it goes. The Bankies Archive will be there to record it, whether it’s good or bad. Let’s hope for the former!

Match report written by Stuart McBay