CLYDE 2  ANNAN ATHLETIC  1

HT 1-0.          Clyde – K Watt 26 min, S Chaplain og 58 min. Annan A Love 55 min.

Annan became the first SFL club to play on the new 3G surface at Broadwood, the match had to be delayed 15 minutes due to an accident on the main arterial motorway leading to Broadwood and it was the home team who secured the points courtesy of a Scott Chaplain own goal in the 58^th minute after substitute Alistair Love squared the match for Annan in the 55^th minute to cancel out Kevin Watt’s 26^th minute stunning opener.

Annan started the match with Keiran McGachie leading the attack at the expense of the injured Michael Daly and David Murray made a welcome return to the left wing after a lengthy injury. Annan made a  promising start to the game  and for the opening 20 minutes Annan took the  game to Clyde, forcing several dangerous corners which the Clyde defence dealt with in impressive style. Clyde forced their first corner in the 13th minute but the first real chance of the game arrived in the 21^st minute when Annan opened up the Clyde defence down the right flank and Scott Chaplain homed in on keeper Jamie Barclay but instead of squaring to the unmarked Murray the Annan man elected to shoot and Barclay managed to save the ball with his feet. It was a real let off for Clyde and minutes later the Clyde keeper was once again called upon when he pulled off a confident save from a Chris Jardine effort.

As so often happens in football all Annan’s good work was cancelled out by Clyde’s first real effort on goal resulted in a goal in the 26^th minute and it was a strike fitting to win any match when Kevin Watt connected with Brian Gilfillan’s flick on and the 16 yard effort ripped into the top corner of the net past the despairing dive of Alex Mitchell.

 Annan looked to respond immediately when Keiran McGachie sent an inviting ball across the face of the goal followed by a Ramage  near post corner which struck the post . Annan were pushing for the eqauliser and Barclay pulled off a confident save to deal with a Jack Steele  shot in the 36^th minute. Clyde then created a good opening and were unlucky when John Neil’s deft header from Stuart McColm’s cross almost crept in at the far post. Annan finished the half with a promising Blake cross to the back post.

Jordan McKechnie deputised for Chris Jardine at the start of the second half and minutes into the half Alistair Love replaced the injured Jack Steele and it was Love who squared the match in the 54^th minute with another  superb strike from a  Keiran McGachie pass and the finish from the edge of the box gave Barclay no chance.

Clyde responded minutes later after  forcing a corner and Steven Masterton’s  inswinging corner spelled danger for Annan and Scott Chaplain was unfortunate to head the ball into his own net to give Clyde the edge again. Chances from here on in were few and far between, Annan pushed hard for the final 10 minutes without really creating a scoring chance but the Clyde defence stood firm.

Jim Duffy was delighted with the outcome, particularly pleasing was the way we defended the set pieces our concentration defensively was spot on. We got the break with the winning goal and if you get that you enjoy it. I think you will find that there will be very little between any of the teams each team will believe that they will get a result and it will be a competitive, you will get 100% commitment from all the players and that was evident today.

Harry Cairney was not too critical of his teams performance. In the first half we played well created a few chances but just could not convert them, then Clyde score a very good goal, in the second half we just got back into the game with a good strike from Ally Love and instead of us turning them by playing the ball long from defence  we concede a corner and end up losing a disappointing goal. That is the best we have played in the league this year so we can take some comfort from that but we keep conceding sloppy goals and that is costing us dearly. The team put in a good shift and worked hard we just need to be more clinical when we get the chances and stop conceding sloppy goals.

Clyde   – J Barclay, G Brown, L Sharp, Trialist, D Marsh, P Hay, J Neil, S Masterton (R Macbeth 59 min), K Watt, B Gilfillan (J Sweeny 45min), S McColm. Substitutes not used J Kane, P  Scullion and N Rojovic.

Annan – A Mitchell, J Blake, M McGowan , P Watson , S Swinglehurst,  S Chaplain , G Ramage, C Jardine (J McKechnie 45 min), K McGachie , J Steele (A Love 48 min),  D Murray.  Substitutes not used C Summersgill, G Thorburn and A Donley .

Referee – D Roach.       Assistants -  F Connor and D Ross.