Clyde still afloat after stormy waters

YOU need not even look back to the halcyon days of Harry Haddock, 1958 and the last of Clyde's three Scottish Cup victories as a point of contrast against their current decline.

In 2004, the club were only narrowly pipped for promotion to the Scottish Premier League by Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Two years later, Clyde appeared in the Challenge Cup final. By the end of last season, the team had been relegated from the First Division amid speculation of administration.

Notably, the club's supporters' trust believes such earlier success – albeit hardly on an earth-shaking scale – on the field masked a "steady decline over many years" in the way Clyde are run. The trust, indeed, have pointed to the "accumulative effect of mis-management" of one of Scottish football's most famous old names on a website statement.

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On the time-honoured basis nothing quite puts monetary troubles into sharper focus for a club than results on the pitch, the Clyde support's current disharmony is perfectly easy to understand.

If today's meeting against East Fife passes a morning pitch inspection, John McCormack's men hope to begin a process of hauling themselves from the foot of the Second Division. After a 12-month period in which off-field troubles have dogged Clyde, creating unwanted headlines and prompting the club last summer to release their entire full-time first-team squad, relegation to the Scottish Football League's bottom tier is hardly worthy of contemplation at Broadwood.

However, long-serving director John Taylor has insisted the basic re-alignment of the club means a second demotion in successive seasons, while obviously unwanted, "would not be catastrophic."

Taylor added: "We had 11 seasons in the First Division which, you could argue, represented punching above our weight for a club of Clyde's standing. We reached a situation where the general economic climate, alongside dropping to a league in the Second Division where gate income would drop substantially meant decisions had to be made. There was nothing sinister about the position we were or are in at all.

"(First Division] matches against Partick Thistle, for example, generated a lot of money simply by virtue of the number of away supporters. That aspect takes a major drop in the Second Division, but the difference between the Second and Third Divisions is nowhere near as big.

"We had to look at how we could operate to stay completely without an overdraft, without debt and that meant going part-time. You could make a reasonable case for other clubs, including in the First Division, doing likewise in cutting their cloth accordingly. But it has not been an easy process."

Last season's ongoing battle with North Lanarkshire Council over the rental of Broadwood itself has at least abated. It was that matter, indeed, which in the general public's eyes came the closest to threatening Clyde's very future. "It has been resolved to the extent that ownership (of Broadwood] has been passed to North Lanarkshire Leisure Trust," Taylor explained. "The early signs are good, we have a good relationship with them and appreciate their thoughts and plans."

Taylor and his fellow directors have sought to embrace the trust, particularly since 2003 when the they contributed heavily – up to 50 per cent – to a two-year scheme to clear Clyde's debts. The result is five of the directors on the club's board have a background with the trust even if, by their own admission, that body would still like to see the ownership of Clyde changed into that of a members' body. "We don't believe in separation," Taylor said. "We are very happy for the trust to be involved and have influence."

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On the field, McCormack again cut back on the numbers within his squad earlier this month; opting not to cut his playing budget but spend what he had on what the manager obviously regards as fewer, but better personnel. Yesterday, he confirmed that Willie Kinniburgh will be the Clyde captain for the remainder of this season.

"Things have calmed down off the field because of the steps we took last summer but there has still been a major re-adjustment, throughout the club, to part-time football," Taylor explained.

"Now, the focus is on getting out of the bottom two places and staying in this division."

Clyde have regressed somewhat in the last five decades for that to be their main aim. However, with the board insistent the very survival of the club is no longer at stake, perhaps supporters should be grateful for the smallest of mercies.

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