Clydebank 1
Hearts 5
League (Division 1)

Match Report

Whoever said time is a great healer was probably right.

Half-an-hour and a couple of stiff drinks after the final whistle had blown on an astonishing evening's football at Kilbowie, Bankies fans has simmered down enough to dissect their team's performance on The Night It All Went Wrong.

They had just watched Clydebank humiliated by a side which, quite frankly, won't last five minutes in the Premier League.

Hearts, a team overflowing with players who never quite made it, made amends for their recent defeat at Kilbowie with a promotion winning display.

For ninety minutes on Wednesday night, the chips were down and it was do or die. Sadly, as Hearts did, Clydebank died a painful death.

It matters not a lot that Willie Pettigrew was back to his scavenging best, tearing the home defence to the bone with four goals.

What does matter is Hearts were ruthless, clinical and by far the better side in a game bursting at the seams with incident.

Apart from the six goals - the other two came from Jim Given's 30 minute penalty and Pat Byrne's clever free-kick 23 minutes from the end we had five bookings and the ugly sight of a running battle on the terracing.

Referee Alan Ferguson, fresh from his first Old Firm match last Saturday, showed the yellow card to Tony Gervaise, Blair Millar and Gerry McCabe of Bankies and Roddie McDonald and Walter Kidd of Hearts.

Ironically, as peace broke out on the field following the final booking of the night, trouble flared on the terracing with a mini-invasion of the park by Hearts fans and bricks and bottles flying over the segregation fence in the enclosure.

But the game was not about crowd violence, or bookings, or even individual performances. It was about the result, about men against boys.

Perhaps Clydebank were never destined for promotion, Perhaps they never really wanted it. But whatever the reason, their imminent failure to join Motherwell in next season's Premier League may be a good thing in the long run.

Way back in September, I said that win or lose, Bankies would always make friends with their style of play. They're still the nice guys of the league, and maybe that's the way they're meant to be.