The Thistle Archive

Media report

CLYDE TRY EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOSE TO LATE GOAL. A DERBY, of sorts, both sides applied themselves with awesome resolve. We dared not blink for fear of missing some of the bone- crunching antics. At the end of it all, Thistle had swiped the points with a late winner and dislodged Clyde at the top of the league. It was seldom pretty - eight bookings - but at least the game livened up after an excruciating first half. Uniquely, perhaps, Broadwood was not assailed by spoiling gales, and some imaginative marketing - GBP 4 admission for a parent with child - encouraged a respectable turn-out.

The 2,600 crowd were not regaled with a riveting spectacle, and our notepads were alarmingly bare long into the game. It took fully 30 minutes to furnish a shot on goal, but how decisive it was. Clyde's Ian Spittal, having been cautioned moments earlier for up- ending an opponent, repeated the error inside his own area, and Alan Morgan slammed the penalty past Gordon McIntyre. Clyde's response was immediate, Pat Keogh skelping a long-range effort into Kenny Arthur's arms. At last, the game showed signs of ridding itself of its shoddiness. Our optimism proved justified immediately after the resumption with a flurry of goalmouth incidents at both ends of the park. Thistle's Willie Callaghan miraculously spooned a shot over the bar when it looked easier to score and, minutes later, his team had surrendered the lead. Clyde's Richard McCusker strode 30 yards upfield, laid the ball left to Scott McHarg, and the winger's cross was deflected home by Graham Connell. Clyde having failed to offer much of a threat, an own goal was fitting.

Both sets of players are barely recognisable from last term. Clyde, in particular, have undergone something of a benign revolution in terms of playing personnel, but who would take issue with the ploy? Top of their division prior to this, no Scottish team had conceded fewer league goals to date. Coach Ronnie MacDonald has plundered Junior football for the bulk of his acquisitions. But he has acquired some eye-catching talent as well as a glut of honest jobbers. I was impressed by Clyde's diminutive playmaker Andy McLay. The midfielder was pivotal to everything his side created which, admittedly was not a lot. Still, one memorable jink past a defender teeing the ball up for Stephen Convery might have produced a belated score. Thistle's 86th minute winner came just as you suspected shared spoils would be acceptable to both parties. Connell, he of earlier own goal infamy, belted in a hopeful cross and there was Morgan leaping above his marker to send a looping header over McIntyre.

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