A slightly larger crowd than usual saw this game, although I'm told a head count of the Accies support revealed a figure of about 200. Things just go from bad to worse under this regime.
Accies fielded almost the same team as had played against Alloa in midweek, with only Martin Bonnar coming in to replace Ryan Kelly. This meant that Chris Reid, Steve McCormick and Ian McAulay were inexplicably omitted. You have to wonder if they'll play for the club again.
From the start, it was clear that the Accies team had the right attitude and they really put in a shift today. Clyde didn't look to be a better team than Accies, although they were probably in end of season mode now that promotion has been achieved.
The highlight of the first half was an astonishing miss by Clyde. A through ball left their striker with only Ian McFarlane to beat. The keeper did well to intercept the pass with his chest, but the Clyde player retrieved the ball and passed it to his mate. He was about to score but was denied by a superb last gasp save by McFarlane. Accies had their share of close things too, but the game was goalless at half time. Jose Quitongo had a few of his fantastic mazy runs, one of which ended with him being booked for diving just outside the penalty area.
A few of the fans and about 99% of the occupants of the Directors box missed the start of the second half due to the Grand National being on the telly. Talk about lack of commitment!!
Accies started the second half with David McFarlane replacing the injured Darren Henderson. It was great to see Davie back on the park - the last few times I've seen him he's been driving the team minibus. Accies continued to give as good as they got against Clyde - and it was Accies who took the lead on the hour mark. The ball came to Eddie Cunnington 20 yards out, and just as I was complaining that his shooting has been poor recently, he scored with a deflected shot past David Wylie in the Clyde goal.
While on the subject of Wylie, I thought he had a really poor game today. Either that or someone's been at his gloves with the soap. On several occasions, he fumbled crosses and I got the impression that his defensive colleagues weren't too impressed.
Clyde used all of their subs in the second half and one of them (I'll call him No 14, because I don't know his name) tried to get Eddie Cunnington booked. Eddie pulled out of a challenge, but that didn't stop the Clyde player from rolling around clutching his shin in apparent agony. Eddie looked aghast and was reassured by the referee that he wasn't in trouble - in fact it wasn't even a foul. Quite why the referee didn't book the Clyde player I have no idea.
Anyway, as experienced Accies fans we all knew it was only a matter of when Clyde would score rather than "if". The killer blow came with about 8 minutes left when, after a good move down the left, a neat cross to the back post was headed in quite easily by Brian Carrigan. Clyde nearly nicked it at the end when they had a goal disallowed for pushing in the box. However, that would have been rough justice on an Accies team who really played well today. Presumably they're well aware that three points are about to be deducted and relegation is a genuine possibility again.
It was a good team performance, with Bill Davidson, Steven Thomson and Eddie Cunnington particularly effective. James Coubrough did ok-ish, but missed a bit of a sitter in the second half. The back 4 were reasonably solid but they did go to sleep for the Clyde goal.
With 5 games left (three of them are against the teams below us in the league), the run in will be a barrel of laughs.
Accies : McFarlane, McLaren, Cunnington, Davidson, Hunter, Gaughan, Thomson, Quitongo, Bonnar, Coubrough (Crossley), and Henderson (McFarlane).
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