24th Oct 1998 Partick Thistle 0 Clyde 2 (SFL Second Division - game 12)

matches:1998-99: ← 17game 1819 →

38y, 8m, 27d	Tommy Bryce	Allan Maitland

Martin Lauchlan
Tommy Callaghan

		Ritchie McCusker (0-1, 80 mins); Pat Keogh (0-2, 87 mins)
Kevin Gaughan; Alan Archibald; Robert Dunn		Andy McClay; Ritchie McCusker
Alan Morgan (@ 0-0, 44 mins)
Des McKeown (Scott McArthur, 61 mins); Robert Dunn (Willie Callaghan, 66 mins); Martin Lauchlan (Tommy Callaghan, 88 mins)		Ian Spittal (Brian Rice, 59 mins); Scott McHarg (Brian Carrigan, 66 mins); Stevie Convery (Craig Cranmer, 72 mins)

33y, 8m, 27d	Stevie Ross	David Wylie
32y, 0m, 17d	David Kennedy	Ally McMillan
28y, 9m, 6d	Des McKeown	Darren Murray
20y, 7m, 18d	Kevin Gaughan	Ian Spittal former Jag
20y, 10m, 11d	Alan Archibald	Bryan Smith
23y, 11m, 23d	Graham Connell	Andy McClay
18y, 0m, 23d	Martin Lauchlan	Ritchie McCusker
38y, 8m, 27d	Tommy Bryce	Allan Grant
23y, 10m, 14d	Alan Morgan	Pat Keogh future Jag
19y, 3m, 26d	Robert Dunn	Scott McHarg future Jag
30y, 6m, 4d	Paul McDonald	Stevie Convery

26y, 4m, 30d

29y, 1m, 26d	Tommy Callaghan	Craig Cranmer
31y, 7m, 1d	Willie Callaghan	Brian Rice
30y, 7m, 26d	Scott McArthur	Brian Carrigan

TTA report

Clyde (their 10 outfield players from the Juniors) were the better team even before Morgan was sent off for a wild lunge/stamp (44). Thistle were 2nd best and it was no surprise when Clyde deservedly scored twice (80 and 87) before Lauchlan was stretchered off. But for Ross it would have been even more embarrassing.

Media report

25-Oct-1998, Scotland on Sunday

OFF-KEY MORGAN PROVES SWEET MUSIC FOR COMPOSED CLYDE. THE rain lashed and teeth gnashed in Glasgow's sodden West End. But despite the preposterous conditions, or perhaps because of them, the two teams dished up some engaging entertainment. Clyde snatched two late goals to galvanise their promotion aspirations, but the game's turning point was undoubtedly the first-half dismissal of Thistle's Alan Morgan. From then on, the visitors had complete control of affairs.

Thistle's sprint up the league during the opening quarter of the season has been due in no small part to their prodigious defensive record (sullied somewhat by this result). Young Alan Archibald continues to mature into the player we hoped he would, and there were some warming examples of his precocious ability to behold here. A redoubtable tackler, his prime asset, however, is his knack for anticipating opponents' thinking. His reading of situations is creditable for one so callow, and an interception to deny Allan Grant time to steady his aim was particularly crucial. Mind you, he was rightly booked for an appalling lunge at the same opponent. Unlike Archibald, you would not claim that Tommy Bryce is in the first flush of youth. The limbs are clearly faltering, but his experience is such that he looked easily the most competent Thistle player. Bryce set up the first meaningful attack of the afternoon with a chip to Robert Dunn, but the striker shot weakly at goal. In conditions perhaps more suitable to water polo or mud wrestling, it was inevitable that mistakes would furnish scoring opportunities. Thistle's goalkeeper, Stevie Ross, made a hash of what would otherwise have been a straightforward clearance, and Clyde's Andy McLay - a vastly underrated midfielder in this observer's opinion -attempted an improbable lob from 40 yards. The ball was a yard awry, but Ross made sure he was not remiss with any of his subsequent clearances. When the game deteriorated as a spectacle, you sought entertainment in the exchange of banter between rival fans. Decency forbids recounting the full colourful extent of the dialogue but, after all, this fixture was once the third most prominent Scottish derby (as a press colleague mused, it still is something of a derby, given the number of Maryhill-based players in Clyde's ranks). Indeed, before a quarter of the game had elapsed, you feared that it may not finish with the full compliment of players such was the robustness of the tackling. Clyde's Richie McCusker, along with Dunn and Kevin Gaughan for the home side, joined Archibald in referee Willie Young's notebook as overworked spongemen scurried onto the pitch. Inevitably, a red card was produced. Moments before the break, Thistle's Morgan apparently stamped on Alistair McMillan and consequently beat his team-mates to the bath. Amid all this exuberance, we had been forced to wait fully 30 minutes for the first shot on target, Graham Connell's puny effort from the edge of the area easily clutched by Clyde goalkeeper David Wylie.

The visitors emerged after the resumption clearly bent on taking advantage of their extra man. Keogh, a towering nuisance of an opponent, had a back post header stifled by goalkeeper Ross, as Clyde began to pin Thistle back in their own half. But despite forcing a plethora of corners during this spell, they failed to capitalise on their superiority. There is no denying that Clyde have flourished under Ronnie MacDonald's tutelage. Last season, they were a sorry collection of disinterested old pros and complacent youngsters, but MacDonald has instilled a discipline in his charges that is clearly agreeable to their long-suffering supporters. These travelling fans had much to enthuse about as this game wore on. Scott McArthur smacked a free-kick past Thistle's wall and Ross - atoning for his early mistake - got down smartly to parry the ball to safety. An even more propitious chance was squandered moments later when Steve Convery shamefully headed over from six yards. Finally, Clyde struck with a brace of invaluable goals. A defensive clearance fell to McCusker and, from 25 yards, he dispatched a low shot past Ross to send the visiting support into uncommon rapture. Almost on full-time, the tireless Keogh underlined his side's second-half superiority by skelping another shot past Ross and Thistle were sunk.

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