Clyde vs Forfar

[sydney]

Shouldn't have lost that, but fair play to Forfar who defended well. 

i don't often criticise referees but the ref's performance today was an embarrassment. When a ref has an off day, usually you see poor decisions going against both teams. However, today, we were definitely on the receiving end of most of it. Forfar's goal came from a corner that didn't look like a corner (Don't think Gibson touched it- his reaction seemed to confirm that. If he'd saved it, he'd have gladly taken the credit for the save). Thought we could have had at least one penalty also. Gormleys booking for me wasn't a booking. The fact that he slid in with both feet is obviously why the ref booked him. However, there's no rule that says you can't ! Both his feet were on the deck, he won the ball cleanly and despite the Forfar player going down like a sack of spuds (funnily enough he was fine right after Gormley got booked), it didn't look like he caught the plater at all. Still, the fact that Gormley had to make the tackle in the first place was entirely down to him being painfully slow to react in a situation where he had at least a yard on his opponent. 

Ref should also have clamped down on the blatant time wasting which started in the first half. I don't blame Forfar for that btw as I'm sure we'd do the same in their position. The point is they shouldn't have been allowed to get away with it. 

 

[Jupiter Jazz]

Just now, haufdaft said:

If Johnston dived he should have been booked. If the defender got a foot on the ball, it should have been a corner. The referee gave neither. Baffling right enough.

Having watched Forfar today, there is no way that they will be champions. I think they will struggle to finish second.

They scored from a corner and offered nothing else. And that's with 11 players and the referee playing for them.

Kennedy won the ball and it came off Johnston. Not baffling in the slightest.

That is by far the worst we've been in an attacking sense but defended really well.

[Loondave1]

If Johnston dived he should have been booked. If the defender got a foot on the ball, it should have been a corner. The referee gave neither. Baffling right enough.

Having watched Forfar today, there is no way that they will be champions. I think they will struggle to finish second.

They scored from a corner and offered nothing else. And that's with 11 players and the referee playing for them.

Want your rattle back now [emoji2] [emoji2]

[etherglide]

8 minutes ago, haufdaft said:

If Johnston dived he should have been booked. If the defender got a foot on the ball, it should have been a corner. The referee gave neither. Baffling right enough.

Having watched Forfar today, there is no way that they will be champions. I think they will struggle to finish second.

They scored from a corner and offered nothing else. And that's with 11 players and the referee playing for them.

Haw, haw,haw.

[David W]

I don't think I've ever wanted to erase a game from my memory more than that today. Don't think we even played that well but more than deserved a point. Refereeing was really poor but so was the 20 minute period in the second half where Smith and Gibson decided to lump everything 60 yards. Linton outstanding, Perry looks a good addition and dealt with Lister easily. Flynn absolutely wasted playing deeper. Ferguson nowhere near ready to play.

Fair play to Forfar. A point would've been a good result for them and they took all three. Can't say they were at all impressive but I don't think they set out to be. 8 points in this league is a mammoth gap.

Gormley was even worse than the referee, that needless two footed tackle when he was always going to win the ball sums him up. Given it was him flagged offside at the disallowed goal Id be inclined to side with the linesman. Hopefully he'll be binned back to the juniors in January.

[Harry Haddock]

Have to agree with DW,Gormley is an absolute waste of space and the sooner Ferguson bins him the better.

Also agree that Fergie has a way to go but game time is maybe the answer,certainly in terms of fitness and helping him get his confidence back.

Referree was a disgrace.

[David W]

Oh, and the new kit looked great. Except for the badge. I think I'll be cutting up an old kit to put a proper badge on mine.

[Clyde01]

Forfar are pish, no idea how they have won 7 straight matches. Defended soundly enough but totally shitfested the match and the time wasting was embarrassing.

We struggled to create much against them sitting deeper in the second half. Kept lumping balls up that their CB's dealt with easily. Maybe shows a situation where Easton would have made the difference

Ref had a nightmare. The Gormley tackle and the Forfar boy (no 6 I think) right at the end were not even fouls, nevermind bookings. It was never a corner leading up to their goal. I didn't think Gormely was offside when the ball was struck for the disallowed goal. Should have clamped down on the time wasting by booking 1 of them but instead let it get so out of hand it was cringe worthy.

[etherglide]

2 minutes ago, Clyde01 said:

Forfar are pish, no idea how they have won 7 straight matches. Defended soundly enough but totally shitfested the match and the time wasting was embarrassing.

We struggled to create much against them sitting deeper in the second half. Kept lumping balls up that their CB's dealt with easily. Maybe shows a situation where Easton would have made the difference

Ref had a nightmare. The Gormley tackle and the Forfar boy (no 6 I think) right at the end were not even fouls, nevermind bookings. It was never a corner leading up to their goal. I didn't think Gormely was offside when the ball was struck for the disallowed goal. Should have clamped down on the time wasting by booking 1 of them but instead let it get so out of hand it was cringe worthy.

You'll be telling me they didn't land on the moon next. Conspiracy theory? 

 

 

[shawfield shed boy]

Who was the player getting pictures taken behind standside goal at HT with his kit on. New addition ???.

Onto game. Team were flyin till forfar scored and after that we reverted to i dont want it followed by long ball...

Player like Easton to create was crying out in 2nd half,Dont have him i know but we really missed him today , Get feeling thats going to be said few times

[loon]

How shit are Clyde blaming the ref, If they'd scored from open play they might have got a point. 1-0 dry your eyes.

[Clyde01]

How shit are Clyde blaming the ref, If they'd scored from open play they might have got a point. 1-0 dry your eyes.

If the ref had done his job you wouldn't have got the corner you scored from and the following hour would not have descended into cringe worthy 'game management'.

[Bogs_Dollox]

The Clyde tears in here are magnificent . Mind the gap

[Larry Hood]

19 minutes ago, loon said:

How shit are Clyde blaming the ref, If they'd scored from open play they might have got a point. 1-0 dry your eyes.

We did, open yours

[Bogs_Dollox]

We did, open yours

1-0 dry yours [emoji24][emoji24][emoji24][emoji24][emoji24][emoji24][emoji24]

[shawfield shed boy]

Watch oot for our bus on boxing day

[Sao Paulo]

The scoreline notwithstanding, our performance in the first half was perhaps the best we've turned in all season. Great width. Great energy. Utter dominance in the middle of park*. Linton and McLaughlin should take particular credit for that. We worked a really nice diamond with Higgins at its head, exploiting the space between Forfar's lines well. And unusually for us, we looked like a good defensive unit too. McNeil done a fine job at left back. Shock horror: full-backs do well as full-backs. No, seriously now. He had a really good shift on his weaker side; the play and delivery which followed from his cut-ins got us very close to scoring many a time. Perry and Smith, gloriously at home as the two centre-backs in a four, done a bang up job. First to most on the floor and in the air. Sure, there's hardly any composure or pace between them. But it is League Two. Come on.

It's tiring even me to mention Phil Johnston's name in a critical sentence at this stage. He done little wrong in a defensive respect today. Swankie, who was up against him, didn't work at all hard** and, when he did make an effort, preferred to bring in a forward rather than deliver or attempt to beat Johnston. Swankie's strength was the telling thing in the closer encounters he and Johnston had. Most of that is by the way though. The real let down from a team point of view was Johnston's reticence as our man taking the ball up on the right. There were perhaps six or seven occasions throughout the match on which he only had to knock it past Swankie in order to set up a delivery. That he opted to play it inside or, alternatively, go long to McDonald and Gormley*** was enormously frustrating. And obviously to our detriment. Particularly in the second half where delivery dried right up. We've got a pacey player in Johnston. The minimum we've got to do is tell him to be single minded: get the ball in. Ideally, we'd give him every incentive to do so by playing him on the right of midfield. But that's obviously the last thing on Barry's mind.

The second-half had a predictable character to it. We burned a lot of energy being as good as we were in the first-half. We knew who we were playing and what sort of gap would open up if we lost. We should be delighted by the team's approach, of course. But our big investment required a return which, alas, was not forthcoming. Forfar came back into the game, moving the ball around quite comfortably and with the relaxed swagger of a team who will go on to win the league. They never really threatened Clyde but done plenty to stave off what had been quite consistent pressure in the first half, seeing the game out without much trouble.

The officials didn't cover themselves in glory today. I understand that one or two decisions might've went against us, though I couldn't call them from where I sat. Whatever the case is, it should be apparent that, without Easton, we have to work so much harder to create chances. We'll want Johnston to be uninhibited in helping us make more in future, meaning we'll have to make him our right-winger.

*First time I've seen us run a midfield so effectively in many, many years.
**Easy to see why Forfar fans think what they do about him: turns it on when he wants; plays with the swagger of someone who know he's better than this level, albeit that he might not be any longer.
***Your man broke our play down more effectively than Forfar today. I'd rather Watson or Ferguson. Hell, I'd try McNiff before Gormley - his touch is better!

[Bogs_Dollox]

The scoreline notwithstanding, our performance in the first half was perhaps the best we've turned in all season. Great width. Great energy. Utter dominance in the middle of park*. Linton and McLaughlin should take particular credit for that. We worked a really nice diamond with Higgins at its head, exploiting the space between Forfar's lines well. And unusually for us, we looked like a good defensive unit too. McNeil done a fine job at left back. Shock horror: full-backs do well as full-backs. No, seriously now. He had a really good shift on his weaker side; the play and delivery which followed from his cut-ins got us very close to scoring many a time. Perry and Smith, gloriously at home as the two centre-backs in a four, done a bang up job. First to most on the floor and in the air. Sure, there's hardly any composure or pace between them. But it is League Two. Come on.

It's tiring even me to mention Phil Johnston's name in a critical sentence at this stage. He done little wrong in a defensive respect today. Swankie, who was up against him, didn't work at all hard** and, when he did make an effort, preferred to bring in a forward rather than deliver or attempt to beat Johnston. Swankie's strength was the telling thing in the closer encounters he and Johnston had. Most of that is by the way though. The real let down from a team point of view was Johnston's reticence as our man taking the ball up on the right. There were perhaps six or seven occasions throughout the match on which he only had to knock it past Swankie in order to set up a delivery. That he opted to play it inside or, alternatively, go long to McDonald and Gormley*** was enormously frustrating. And obviously to our detriment. Particularly in the second half where delivery dried right up. We've got a pacey player in Johnston. The minimum we've got to do is tell him to be single minded: get the ball in. Ideally, we'd give him every incentive to do so by playing him on the right of midfield. But that's obviously the last thing on Barry's mind.

The second-half had a predictable character to it. We burned a lot of energy being as good as we were in the first-half. We knew who we were playing and what sort of gap would open up if we lost. We should be delighted by the team's approach, of course. But our big investment required a return which, alas, was not forthcoming. Forfar came back into the game, moving the ball around quite comfortably and with the relaxed swagger of a team who will go on to win the league. They never really threatened Clyde but done plenty to stave off what had been quite consistent pressure in the first half, seeing the game out without much trouble.

The officials didn't cover themselves in glory today. I understand that one or two decisions might've went against us, though I couldn't call them from where I sat. Whatever the case is, it should be apparent that, without Easton, we have to work so much harder to create chances. We'll want Johnston to be uninhibited in helping us make more in future, meaning we'll have to make him our right-winger.

*First time I've seen us run a midfield so effectively in many, many years.
**Easy to see why Forfar fans think what they do about him: turns it on when he wants; plays with the swagger of someone who know he's better than this level, albeit that he might not be any longer.
***Your man broke our play down more effectively than Forfar today. I'd rather Watson or Ferguson. Hell, I'd try McNiff before Gormley - his touch is better!

Pretty much agree with all of that, and have summed swankie up perfectly

[Shawfield Stallion]

That was my first Clyde game in almost a year today. We certainly look better than I last saw us and there were a few really encouraging performances - I was particularly impressed with Linton as a CM, and Scott McLaughlin in there as well. David Gormley's first touch hasn't improved since I last saw him play[emoji38]

I think it's fairly obvious that BF has set this team up around Dylan Easton playing in behind the strikers. However, now that he's injured for the season we're going to have to adjust the game plan as playing guys like Sean Higgins in that position is going to bear absolutely no fruit. He was useless. If the injury if Lowden has necessitated the inclusion of Phil Johnston ANYWHERE NEAR the first team, then he's an even bigger loss to Clyde. Johnston was rotten at Stirling, and at Dumbarton, and Airdrie, and...yep...he was awful today and is definitely the weak link in that team. Rushing into tackles, spraying wayward passes all over the shop and generally running around being a brainless donkey

The referee (G Ross)? was a catastrophe from start to finish. I can't remember being so justifiably infuriated by such an inept performance[emoji38]That's not an excuse by the way - Forfar didn't deserve to lose or anything like that - but even the Forfar lads have to admit that the corner decision for their goal was a head-scratcher to say the least. I thought that some Clyde players lost the rag a bit with him after the shocking decision to book Gormley, so I'm glad it was close enough to half time for them to calm down a bit. There's no doubt that he had an absolutely stinking game though

I can definitely see why Forfar are cruising the league. Their defence looks reasonably sound, but their main asset are those front players. Lister, Swankie, Cox and (especally) Peters all had fine games. They'll never have trouble scoring anyway!

[haufdaft]

First half we played the way that I've thoroughly enjoyed this season, though the midfield on the floor. Second half we resorted to the long high ball to McDonald and Higgins. I don't think Higgins won a header. He doesn't even bother to jump for the ball.
Why do we change the way we play when it brought much more success in the way of chances.
Hopefully, we have found a solid centre half partnership. They looked very solid allowing only a couple of headers from the Forfar forwards.

***Your man broke our play down more effectively than Forfar today. I'd rather Watson or Ferguson. Hell, I'd try McNiff before Gormley - his touch is better!

I totally agree. Gormley offers very little. He seems to wrestle with defenders, falls over. Alternatively, he wrestles with the defender, followed by a dreadful first touch that resembles a clearance.
I wish he would try sometimes to turn the defenders. All together with his poor scoring record, I won't be sad to see him dropping back to the juniors.

I thought, once again, that McLaughlin was great today. I was his biggest critic last season and was disappointed when he was retained. I'm happy to admit I was wrong. So far he is my player of the season.