Clydebank 5
Lochar Thistle 0
Friendly

Match Report

The Bankies continued their pre-season activities with a 5-0 victory over South of Scotland League champions at Holm Park this afternoon. The sides were so wildly mis-matched that it barely needs any analysis. But for the sake of posterity and the reason this website exists, we’ll cover the main incidents.

From start to finish it was a one way procession towards the Lochar goal and it was only due to some desperate defending that it took until the 23rd minute before the opening goal was scored when Nicky Little was presented with an easy chance following some persistent work by Keir Samson on the touchline.

It was Little again who doubled the lead twelve minutes later when he was the beneficiary of more of Keir Samson’s hard work. Samson had run onto a long ball over the top and he did well to lay off to McLaughlin whose shot was stopped by the keeper, but the ball spilled nicely for Little to put away.

Bankies recruit from St Cadocs Neil McLaughlin continues to impress as he netted a hat trick to complete the scoring. His first came just minutes before the half time break when he headed home a Chris McGowan cross from close range. His second was probably the best goal of the day when he latched on to a knock on by Keir Samson and beautifully executed a lob leaving thr goalkeeper stranded.

The fifth goal to complete his treble was netted from the penalty spot following Aaron Black being chopped down in the midst of a mazy run. Black came on at half time and ran riot against the Lochar defence, and his contribution really underlined the gulf in class between the two sides.

The only other noteworthy incident was the yellow card given to Keir Samson for what I can only presume was for being a pain in the arse. Samson seems to have no filter on the pitch and plays every game like his life depends on it. This is no bad thing, but he just got involved in one too many heated moments for the referee’s liking. Frustration probably played a part too as Samson should probably have scored a hat-trick today with many a clear cut chance being squandered. I’m completely confident that he will rectify this when the real action starts.

We travel to Rob Roy on Wednesday and then take on Auchinleck Talbot at Holm Park next Saturday in the West of Scotland Charity Cup which is something akin to the Charity Shield in England where the league and cup winners face-off.

Edit to add: It should be mentioned that both sets of players coped extremely well with the heat as the temperature reached well into the high 80s and the tempo was decent throughout. Judging by the red faces leaving the ground, not too many Bankies fans will need to wear club colours at the next game

Match report written by Stuart McBay