Partick Thistle 2 - 1 Clyde: Macbeth sinks Bully Wee

Published on Friday 23 July 2010 23:38

THISTLE eventually prevailed against their Third Division opponents in the Alba Challenge Cup but it required an exceptional strike from Ryan McBeth in the 70th minute to take them through.

Clyde and their supporters, however, will take encouragement from, a gritty performance which belied their lowly status.

Ian McCall, Thistle's manager, was impressed by the Bully Wee and their supporters but was unhappy about the backing his players received from their own crowd.

"That was like a home game for Clyde - and make sure you get that in," he said. "It was like an old-fashioned Glasgow derby and that was exactly the type of game we needed at this stage."

The home side squandered a glorious opportunity to open the scoring in the tenth minute when Paul Paton's cross found Kris Doolan unmarked at the far corner of the six-yard box only for the striker to head wastefully over.

However, Thistle moved in front just two minutes later. A shot from Simon Donnelly took a benign deflection into the path of Liam Buchanan, who took the ball round goalkeeper John Hutchison before stroking it into the unguarded net.

Connor Stevenson ought to have equalised for the visitors in the 17th minute but he failed to hit the target with a free header from Adam Strachan's corner.

Former Clyde 'keeper Bryn Halliwell was then forced to dive to his left to turn behind a netbound free-kick from Bryan Dingwall.

At the other end Hutchinson produced a fine reflex save to push over a fierce volley from Doolan.

Willie Kinniburgh, another former Clyde player, earned the first caution of the new campaign for a cynical foul on Marc McCusker 30 yards but was punished far more severely when Adam Strachan, who used to play for the Jags, drove the ball into Halliwell's top right-hand corner from the resulting free-kick.

Ross McMillan was shown a yellow card for bringing down Doolan but while the first half had been entertaining the second period was duller than Keane covering Coldplay.

Fortunately, McBeth saved all present from enduring extra time when he collected a loose ball

25 yards out and swivelled to fire a left-foot shot into Hutchison's bottom right-hand corner.

Thistle's David Rowson collected the sponsors' Man of the Match award but it could just as easily have gone to Strachan, a target for abuse from the otherwise silent majority yesterday.

"I took some stick but that just made me play better," said the Clyde captain. "It wound me up and I'll never score a better free-kick in my career than the one I got today."

Clyde's manager Stuart Millar felt that his players had been hard done by.

"We had nine boys making their debuts today and I was absolutely delighted with them," he said.

"Sometimes in football you don't always get what you deserve but we were a credit to this club and that performance gives us a lot of hope.

"We're having to rebuild this club and our young lads did particularly well. Adam came back to Firhill and he's shown them just how good he is."