Clydebank 3
East Stirlingshire 1
Scottish Cup (2nd Round)

Match Report

While the Bankies fully deserved to progress to the third round of the Scottish Cup it was hardly vintage stuff at Holm Park this afternoon. East Stirlingshire gave a decent account of themselves in the first half, but other than a well taken opening goal they didn’t pose the Clydebank defence a whole lot of problems.

The last thing we needed to do however was concede an early goal, particularly after losing our unbeaten record in the league last week. We contrived to do just that, and it was a wee test of our mettle and resilience to see how we would react. We always looked like we had enough in our locker to turn the result around, but we made heavy weather of it and the result wasn’t truly secured until debutant Rocco Hickey-Fugaccia netted in stoppage time.

As well as Hickey-Fugaccia on loan from Arbroath, the Bankies had Oisin McHugh available from the bench after missing the last nine games through injury. Nicky Low also returned to the starting line up after a minor issue kept him out of last week’s defeat at Bonnyrigg.

Holm Park housed its second largest attendance of the season as recent successful Scottish Cup runs have peaked the interest in the Clydebank public. The Bankies almost rewarded the large support in the opening minutes when Keir Samson capitalised on a mistake from Docherty. His near post cross was met by Nicky Little, but his shot squirmed off target. After a prolific start to the season Little has now scored just once in his last eight games.

The Shire shocked the Bankies after just eight minutes of play. As McCafferty drove towards the Bankies penalty box, our defence just dispersed in front of him. He pushed the ball into the feet of Lamont and he took on the return pass before burying the ball past Stott.

Clydebank reacted poorly to losing a goal at Bonnyrigg last week, and for a while it looked like something similar might happen here. McCafferty, again, was afforded too much space and he fed the ball to Lamont whose shot from the edge of the box brought out a fine save from Stott.

The Bankies performance was quite flat, and the crowd were given precious little to shout about, but as we approached the half hour mark there were signs that the tide was turning in our favour. Grant shot over from 20 yards and Samson had two efforts blocked before McLaughlin volleyed the loose ball over the bar.

The equaliser didn’t seem far away after Syme had a header cleared off the line from a corner kick, and it came when the ball was recycled. Nicky Low delivered a first time cross into the box and Hobbs did enough to deter to deter Samson, but the ball broke kindly for Jimmy Grant who rifled the ball into the roof of the net.

The Bankies were on top now as The Shire retreated into a more defensive shape but despite this the home side weren’t exerting enough pressure in the last third. The closest to a goal before the interval was a through ball to Samson which brought out a great save from Cantley as the striker tried to find the bottom corner.

The die was now cast for the second half, as East Stirlingshire offered virtually nothing from an attacking perspective. Even though the result was in the balance, it was just a matter of if and when the Bankies would make the breakthrough.

We were not making the most of the promising positions we found ourselves in however. A Nicky Little header which he took smartly on the upward bounce came off the crossbar, and Neil McLaughlin was unlucky as two chances in quick succession were saved by Cantley.

This was McLaughlin’s last chance to equal the record of scoring in seven consecutive matches held by Craig Flannigan as he, Nicky Little and Dean Cairns were substituted to make way for McHugh, Black and Hickey-Fugaccia after 65 minutes.

There was much murmuring on the terraces regarding the choices of the players being removed from the field, but Moffat is either lucky or brilliant as the changes brought a result within three minutes.

Lee Gallacher delivered a free kick into the box from 35 yards out on the left wing, and Keir Samson rose superbly to bullet a header into the top corner. Samson was well worth his goal after another top performance from the forward.

You couldn’t see any way back for the Shire now. They brought on more attack minded players but they simply didn’t have the wherewithal to get anywhere near the Bankies goal, though Hislop sent a volley wide of goal to underline how precarious a single goal lead can be.

There were a few near things before Hickey-Fugaccia finally put the game to bed in the third minute of stoppage time. The loanee showed enough to suggest he can do a job for the Bankies in his spell with the club. He latched onto a great pass from Aaron Black and showed great pace before driving the ball past Cantley and into the net via the far post.

The number one priority was always just to progress to the next round, and whilst we always looked like we were going to get there eventually we hardly sparkled and it was certainly not amongst our best performances of the season.

Man of the match was quite difficult to choose, but I’m more or less in agreement with the match sponsors that Matt Niven was about the best player on show. Keir Samson is probably the most consistent performer week in week out, but other than that the rest were kind of middle of the road and will need to up their game as the Celtic B team visit Holm Park on league business next week.

Match report written by Stuart McBay