Ayr Utd 1
Clydebank 0
League (Division 1)

Match Report

More than five months after their last away defeat, Clydebank went down in the depressing atmosphere of Somerset park to a final minute goal from little Brian Ahern.

His scrambled effort with Ayr's last attack of an awful match brought to an end the proudest away record in the country and further dented what hopes Bankies might have of promotion.

It was perhaps, inevitable that Clydebank's run of success away from Kilbowie would come to an end at somewhere as inauspicious as Ayr, for most of their best performances have come in matches which should have been difficult tests.

Saturday's was a defeat brought about by a lack of concentration right at the end - and by a series of missed chances in front of keeper Scott McKay's goal.

But it was also a defeat which showed once again just how fickle football fans can be. As the final whistle went I heard Bankies fans calling for just about every head from Sammy Henderson's to the driver of the supporters bus as they showed their anger at the result.

And I found myself asking the question - does a team doing well at 0-0 become a bad side by losing a last minute goal?

Does one touch of an opponent's boot change anything which a side has done during a match? In short, is winning everything?

I don't think so. Neither side produced much in the way of entertainment on Saturday, what Clydebank played an open game as opposed to United's kick and rush tactics.

Bobby Williamson had a short cleared off the line. Gerry McCabe and Martin Hughes squandered chances in front of goal and Bankies generally carved up Ayr's weak defence in a second-half in which the played into a fierce wind.

The home side, on the other hand took every opportunity to hoof the ball as far as possible (on three occasions this meant out of the ground) in an effort to get into the lead. A bitt lake Watford, without the good players.

Eventually though, it paid off. They worked their way towards the left side of the park and the bye-line, got the ball across to Ahern and he poked a shot past Jim Gallacher and Jim Given for the winner.

Fair enough, Clydebank will have been kicking themselves - and probably missing - for not cashing in on their scoring opportunities and then giving away that last gasp goal.

But would it have been any more satisfying for the real spectator to see things happening the other way round, with Clydebank grabbing the winner just when we were heading for goalless stalemate?

Whichever way round it had happened, at would have been a terrible game, and a terrible day for football.

There is something wrong with Scottish football and the Scottish football fan when a game on a cold, wintry day in front of 700 odd people becomes a matter of life or death.

Goodness knows, if followers of our national team based everything on winning or losing, the Erskine bridge could open a new toll-booth for tartan-clad human lemmings.

No, I'm on the side of the fans who stood up for their team despite the defeat. They argued that the game is still the most important thing and if you win great stuff. But, if you don't then after the initial disappointment its forgotten.

Next stop Clydebank play host to St Johnstone. The last time the Perth side were at Kilbowie they thought themselves a bit unlucky to lose to a second-half own goal - and with some justification.

That day Clydebank didn't play an awful lot better than they did on Saturday, but on that occasion it was they who got the break when it mattered.

Did that make them world beaters? I suppose it must have, because when Ayr got the rub of the green it apparently turned Bankies into a shower of no-hopers.

In football, unfortunately, the winners are remembered and the losers forgotten, but in a game such as Saturday's, neither side deserved to go down in the record books with any credit.

And the blinkered mob who took the easy option and slammed the Clydebank squad on Saturday should remember that the next time their team gains a lucky win.