Clydebank 7
Caledonian Locos 1
South Challenge Cup (2nd Round)

Match Report

As expected the Bankies collected their tenth consecutive victory of the season against Second Division Caledonian Locomotives in the South Challenge Cup at Holm Park this afternoon. The 7-1 scoreline maintained the perfect start and while the result never seemed to be in any doubt, it was a sluggish Clydebank in the first half that struggled to breakdown a resolute Locos defence and it was really the introduction of Craig Truesdale that gave the extra impetus to go on and rack up a healthy result in the end.

For the first 55 minutes of the match the Locos side had performed admirably, and it was only when the second goal was scored did their resistance finally wilt. It was a scrappy and avoidable goal as well when Truesdale all too easily deflected a near post Lee Gallacher corner past Kieran Glaser. From that point on it all became a bit of procession

The Bankies had carried a 1-0 lead into the second half which was netted by Alan Kelly when he put his boot through the ball when a half cleared cross ball landed kindly for him in the box after 29 minutes.

Other chances had been passed up by Jimmy Grant and Ciaran Mulcahy and Callum Graham had a goal correctly chopped off for offside. However the Caley Locos had their moments as well. Lennon Houston made a poor attempt at lobbing Connor Keaney from a decent position, and Ryan Watson showed a great piece of individual skill by leaving two Bankies defenders in his wake before he sent Struan McArthur through on goal with a pin-point pass. Fortunately, Keaney was alert to the danger and raced from his line to make a fantastic save.

Surprisingly and quite unusually, Gordon Moffat made two changes at half time, and probably more so as Danny MacKenzie had to hobble off with a hamstring injury just twelve minutes into the game. Whether this was always going to be happening or whether Moffat was unhappy with the first half showing will be interesting to see. In any event, Alan Kelly and Callum Graham were replaced by Craig Truesdale and Keir Samson.

Initially, it didn’t make a great deal of difference, but once Truesdale scored the second goal then the spaces began to open up for the Bankies and the passing became much more crisp and effective.

Truesdale provided the assist for the third after 60 minutes when he delivered a perfect cross from the left wing of the kind Ciaran Mulcahy loves to attack and he bulleted a fine header into the net . Five minutes on and goal number four arrived when Lee Gallacher sprung the offside trap. He squared a simple pass to the in-rushing Keir Samson to net his fourth goal of the season.

And when substitute Ben McLernan’s low shot from the edge of the box was allowed by Glaser to squirm through his body for number five, then any number of goals could have been scored.

We had to settle for just two more goals. Craig Truesdale scored the pick of the bunch when he curled the ball from the left wing right into the postage stamp. This strike was met with cynicism from his teammates as to whether he meant it or if it was a mis-guided cross.

Skipper Nicky Little finished off the scoring from Clydebank’s point of view when he neatly clipped the ball into the corner of the net after Jimmy Grant had quite cleverly flicked it to him.

However, right at the death, the Bankies propensity for not being able to keep a clean sheet came to the fore again when David Syme made an uncharacteristic slack passback which was intercepted by Connor McAteer. The Locos substitute neatly prodded the ball past Keaney for a well-earned consolation.

Its always difficult to tell how games like this will pan out. The first thing to do is get the game won. If you can do that with a bit of style and score a few goals then all the better. We got that mostly right by the end and we move on to the next round with the minimum of fuss.

There is no game next week giving plenty of preparation time for the big Scottish Cup tie against Girvan the following Saturday. We are red hot favourites for this match and we just need to be as professional as we were today to make sure we earn passage to the next round.

Match report written by Stuart McBay