St Cadocs 0
Clydebank 1
League (WoSFL Premier)

Match Report

The Bankies 1-0 defeat of St Cadocs this afternoon at New Tinto Park was the club’s best league start since the aborted covid season in 2020 and further back to 2015 when we last won the opening four matches in a league campaign.

Unfortunately, this record is still not good enough to lead the table as local rivals Drumchapel United have also started their maiden season in the Premier League with a 100% record and have a better goal difference.

I find myself in the fortunate position of having nothing to complain about. It’s not so good for the web stats as these reports are certainly read more when things are not going so good. It is, however, still early in the season!

The recruitment going into this season has been spectacular, and the acquisition of Keir Samson has further added to the calibre of player now plying their trade at Clydebank FC. It seems alien to Clydebank supporters to be competing for the signatures of the top players at this level. The only other time I can remember anything like this was when Ian McCall was Clydebank manager back in 1997 when the club started signing players that were always out of our reach. It certainly feels a little odd.

Samson, who was only announced as joining the club on the morning of the match found a spot on the bench with the only change to the starting eleven being Craig Truesdale who replaced Thomas Collins who took a knock against Pollok.

St Cadocs have had a surprisingly poor start to the season considering they signed 40+ goalscoring machine Ciaran Diver from champions Beith. That was their only real signing in the close season as they obviously believe the squad they have plus Diver may be enough to better their third placed finish from last season. I’m pleased to report that Diver has now failed to score against the Bankies in four matches he has played against us.

The wind made the game tricky for two teams who like to play a bit of football, but it was really the referee who did his best to spoil everyone’s enjoyment by booking eight and sending off two in a game that barely had a bad tackle in the whole 90 minutes.

Ronan Hughes saw red after 53 minutes for apparent dissent and Frazer Johnstone was sent off at New Tinto Park for the second season in a row harshly penalised for supposedly kicking the ball away with just thirteen minutes remaining. Most in the crowd were none the wiser.

By that stage the Bankies were already a goal ahead from a stunning Lee Gallacher free kick after Nicky Little had been fouled 25 yards from goal. Gallacher hit the proverbial postage stamp with a shot that had perfect pace and height. Gallacher and Little had been singled out for criticism in the second half of last season, but both have started this term in a much higher gear. It looks to me that Little has been told to give it everything he’s got for an hour or so and then he is being replaced. The quality in the squad is making sure everyone now can’t afford to not perform.

Overall, this was a game of few chances, with both sides enjoying periods of dominance throughout. The Bankies started off brightly, but the Cads had a couple of early shots at goal from Diver and McLaughlin with neither giving Leishman too much to worry about.

It was testament to the Bankies off the ball running that St Cadocs main danger players found it hard to get their passing game going, as we turned the ball over on several occasions. As the game settled down Clydebank looked the more likely.

Little flashed a shot wide of the post and there were a couple of nice passing moves that just missed the final pass. Once Gallacher scored his free kick after 23 minutes the Bankies were well on top.

Gallacher was about a foot wide of the post when his left foot free-kick from the right hand touchline almost swung in to the net. Truesdale who is now starting to look like the player we all hoped he would be set up Gallacher and his deflected shot hit both the bar and post.

Gallacher and Truesdale had further efforts that were either off-target or wide of the post as St Cadocs were fortunate to go into the break just a goal behind.

St Cadocs resumed the second period in a much more positive frame of mind, but the only real moment of panic came when David Syme made a rare error and was dispossessed by Diver and subsequently had to foul him Syme was booked by the ref in one of the few occasions he got a decision right.

As we were waiting for a free kick to be played into the box, an inordinate amount of time passed before the ref ended up giving Ronan Hughes a second yellow card presumably for something he said.

The Bankies never really got to grips with having an extra man, and we didn’t push our advantage home though there were a couple of near things when Mulcahy played a dangerous low ball across the six yard box with no takers and Lee Gallacher had a shot blocked when a deflected cross came at him too quick.

Samson was introduced with twenty minutes remaining to give the attack some extra impetus and he almost scored a debut goal with his first touch, but the ball just got away from him under pressure from McKillen.

The Bankies intentions to score a killer second goal were derailed when Frazer Johnstone was sent off for kicking the ball away. The incident looked borderline at best and was a second needless red card issued by the ref.

That gave St Cadocs a lift and the extra space allowed them to find more joy with their passing game. The Bankies retaliated with Gordon Moffat changing to three at the back and by and large we nullified the threat of St Cadocs successfully. Other than some dangerous balls into the box the defence earned their first clean sheet of the season. Only one goal that was not a penalty has been conceded this season.

If we can be both hard to beat and have a cutting edge at the other end of field we are giving ourselves every chance of success. It is difficult to pick out star performers in what was a team effort but Craig Truesdale caught the eye again. Lee Gallacher is looking more like his usual self and the whole defensive department take great plaudits for their performances.

We face struggling Darvel in midweek at Holm Park in the league before travelling to Ardeer next Saturday in the South Challenge Cup. It is interesting to note that since 2003 Ardeer, along with Saltcoats Vics, and Muirkirk are the only clubs we haven’t faced in a competitive game.

Match report written by Stuart McBay