Clyde v Stenhousemuir

[Only one David Marsh]

Stenny running the midfield but overall hopeless 

[haufdaft]

Are the midfield playing today or have they been given the day off?

[David W]

Goodwillie looks like he's just stumbled out the pub. Apart from maybe Cuddihy I'd suggest the same of the others as well.

Flat back five and we can't defend a thing. Just go all out attack.

Good goal for Stenny. They were pretty pedestrian before that as well but they've upped it since.

[SLClyde]

We should try the long ball more, seems to work...

As bad a 45 I've seen for a while, just glad it's only 1 so far. 

[Clyde01]

Trying to decide if the football or the half time opera music is worst.

[Replays]

I don't like this Clyde team much.

[The_BullyWee]

1-1 Nicoll

[Replays]

Cuddihy my MOTM today.

[David W]

8 minutes ago, Scott-Replay said:

Cuddihy my MOTM today.

By a mile.

Point each fair. Rubbish game, two rubbish teams. Hopefully that's the end of the back five.

[cfcuk]

Dreadful game poor performance
Long season ahead [emoji52]

[SouthLanarkshireWhite]

On 25/08/2017 at 12:12, SouthLanarkshireWhite said:

Comedians of your quality should be on Cock The Week with Russell Howard! You would give him a run for his money.

 

First game for a year tomorrow to see what all the fuss is about. They can't be as bad as described at the back!

 

The people who go week in, week out are worth my respect. That was awful, especially first half where I was thinking when I could sensibly just leave.

 

There is no way on earth that team will be anywhere near getting us out this league. Goodwillie must be kept or disaster awaits.

 

£21 for a father and son too.

 

I didn't need many reasons to continue finding other things to do, and I got at least three.

 

 

[Adolfo Rios]

Really poor match. A point was the fair result.

David Crawford made Bryn Halliwell's kicking look pin-point accurate.

[Jack Burton]

Very poor game and nothing from either side to suggest that they would be troubling the top end of the table.

We weren't in the game at all in the first half. A flat back five and nothing in midfield meant that Goodwillie and Osadolar were living off long punts.

Stenny were nothing great either. They controlled the midfield and had most of the possession without offering much. McGuigan's goal was the only decent bit of quality in the game. The only other chance they had was from Nicol and Crawford not resolving a ball into the box and Crawford has to save well with his feet. Longworth offered little which is a change as he has been a thorn in our side for years.

The change to 4-4-2 and bringing on Burbidge swing things in our favour. I would be sticking to 4-4-2 from now with Burbidge being in the starting XI.

Stenny Sat back in the second half and we struggled to create much. The high ball up to the forwards was still used far too often and easily dealt with. Our crosses into the box were also largely ineffective either cleared easily or nobody in the right place. The few times we did win the first header there was no one to take advantage. The only time we attacked a cross well resulted in the equaliser.

Was the right sub and change of formation at half time but I would have took off either Home or Miller instead. Home shouldn't be in the starting line-up either play Bradley or Breslin at right back. Miller was hopeless in midfield today. Burbidge has to start in our next game. The front two offered little today albeit they were giving little to work with. Goodwillie would turn a defender but either tried too much or was crowded out and Osadolar didn't cause as much bother for the Stenny defence as he has done in previous games. Nicol gets turned inside out far too often in defence but unless we take a punt on Harrison or Wilson there is nobody else to play there. He does put in a number of decent tackles though but it is usually to make up for a prior mistake. McNiff, we need to bin the long throws. We can't keep getting caught of position with McNiff taking the throw and Nicol trying to win it. We got away with it a few times today.

[cfcuk]

The people who go week in, week out are worth my respect. That was awful, especially first half where I was thinking when I could sensibly just leave.
 
There is no way on earth that team will be anywhere near getting us out this league. Goodwillie must be kept or disaster awaits.
 
£21 for a father and son too.
 
I didn't need many reasons to continue finding other things to do, and I got at least three.
 
 

After that today no wonder fans don't come and watch us regularly
If innes thinks that people are going to encourage friends / family to come and watch a ball being booted up the park continuously then he as my old man would say he up a gum tree.

Thought wright and burbridge made a difference but will be immediately benched for next game.

[Sao Paulo]

Howling game, that. Howling.

Our differently staffed defence got off to a shocker. Nicoll, Home and McNiff formed a three with Bradley and Stewart playing as wing-backs in front of them. As a collective they were paceless, unfamiliar and disorganised. More than that, their use of the ball was awful. And we're talking basics here. Not hitting diagonals. Just scudding it forward any which way, virtually guaranteeing that it'd come straight back at them. We should have a plan for who makes what run and when. You know, 'Smart does this', 'Goodie does that'. Aim here. Aim there. Make it easy to run onto or time a header for. Worrying stuff. Crawford's kicking didn't help. I'm going to intrude the word backspin here just for a laugh. His kicks had exactly the same flaws as JC Hutchinson's. The ball's going the distance, moving as speed, but it's almost completely still in the air. Defenders love a ball like that. The lightest touch from them and it goes back into the oppositions half at 100mph.

Anyway, nothing stuck with Goodwillie or Smart for the reasons stated above. And, frankly, even if it had I don't know if either player would've made much of it. Both looked sluggish, less aggressive and less hungry than normal. While losing two two-nil leads can do that to your mind, it'd worry me if that was the reason so early on in the season.

Stenny were more organised than us and done the basics far better. However, fortunately for us, they didn't have much pace or guile about them. Longworth and McGuigan made a nuisance of themselves though; they had the better of our boys in the air for the first forty-five. Had Stenny a Robert Love type player to fill the space between midfield and attack, they could've pumped us. Or, alternatively, had they any wide player capable of cutting inside and beating a man, we might've taken a riding. As it was, McGuigan's great turn and strike from distance broke the deadlock. Really, really good goal.

Second half. Maybe a ball-hair of improvement from us. The defence at least begun to find some organisation and win more of its bread-and-butter headers. A wee bit of a rally got us some corners and dead-balls in Stenny's half. Happily, Nicoll steamed onto the end of one to level it up. Burbridge and Wright's introductions helped. Frankly, they're due on from the start. Why Bradley is played out wide, I don't know. There's nothing to recommend him to that spot but his size. He's so gingerly and paceless; more of a vulnerability than home would ever be. As for Darren Miller. That boy's got an attitude problem that isn't going anywhere and his use of the ball is minging.

I'd give the defence a wee bit of credit for upping it the second half. Cuddihy, Ramsay, Wright and Burbridge at least beasted in. But we're really, really needing some new players. For the middle of the park and the middle of the defence. And we need them ASAP.
 

[Bridgeton Clyde Boy]

Agree with all above about the game being dreadful, some of the worst football I've seen in a wile... Smart didn't do much right all game struggled to do anythin, maybe Goodwillie's worst game for us tho I think his off side goal was actually on.. Nicol had some good moments and off course his great goal... Crawford was better than Currie not hard 

[maccanee]

Howling game, that. Howling.

Our differently staffed defence got off to a shocker. Nicoll, Home and McNiff formed a three with Bradley and Stewart playing as wing-backs in front of them. As a collective they were paceless, unfamiliar and disorganised. More than that, their use of the ball was awful. And we're talking basics here. Not hitting diagonals. Just scudding it forward any which way, virtually guaranteeing that it'd come straight back at them. We should have a plan for who makes what run and when. You know, 'Smart does this', 'Goodie does that'. Aim here. Aim there. Make it easy to run onto or time a header for. Worrying stuff. Crawford's kicking didn't help. I'm going to intrude the word backspin here just for a laugh. His kicks had exactly the same flaws as JC Hutchinson's. The ball's going the distance, moving as speed, but it's almost completely still in the air. Defenders love a ball like that. The lightest touch from them and it goes back into the oppositions half at 100mph.

Anyway, nothing stuck with Goodwillie or Smart for the reasons stated above. And, frankly, even if it had I don't know if either player would've made much of it. Both looked sluggish, less aggressive and less hungry than normal. While losing two two-nil leads can do that to your mind, it'd worry me if that was the reason so early on in the season.

Stenny were more organised than us and done the basics far better. However, fortunately for us, they didn't have much pace or guile about them. Longworth and McGuigan made a nuisance of themselves though; they had the better of our boys in the air for the first forty-five. Had Stenny a Robert Love type player to fill the space between midfield and attack, they could've pumped us. Or, alternatively, had they any wide player capable of cutting inside and beating a man, we might've taken a riding. As it was, McGuigan's great turn and strike from distance broke the deadlock. Really, really good goal.

Second half. Maybe a ball-hair of improvement from us. The defence at least begun to find some organisation and win more of its bread-and-butter headers. A wee bit of a rally got us some corners and dead-balls in Stenny's half. Happily, Nicoll steamed onto the end of one to level it up. Burbridge and Wright's introductions helped. Frankly, they're due on from the start. Why Bradley is played out wide, I don't know. There's nothing to recommend him to that spot but his size. He's so gingerly and paceless; more of a vulnerability than home would ever be. As for Darren Miller. That boy's got an attitude problem that isn't going anywhere and his use of the ball is minging.

I'd give the defence a wee bit of credit for upping it the second half. Cuddihy, Ramsay, Wright and Burbridge at least beasted in. But we're really, really needing some new players. For the middle of the park and the middle of the defence. And we need them ASAP.
 

Spot on analysis, apart from the backspin theory but let's not get into that argument again!

[Sao Paulo]

Oh, it's been proven at CERN in Geneva.

[Rickenbacker17]

Same old story for Stenhousemuir so far this season can't hold onto a lead and only play for one half.

The first 45 Steny were the better side, looking forward to watching the highlights to see Mark McGuigans goal again, goals off the underside of the bar always look great. Clyde were there for the taking, I thought last season our defence was bad but deary me that was up there.
One goal for Steny is never enough however.

Second half you could tell 5mins in that Clyde would get a goal at some point. More than deserved the point and had they got a second I wouldn't have been surprised.

We had a chance right at the death that McGuigan probably should have scored with but had it went in we really would have stole the points.

The midfield is a massive problem for us no wide men, creativity and it's all so slow.

Ross Dunlop played well, Mark McGuigans goal was excellent and thought Nathen Blockley done ok but other than that the rest were a bit meh.

[David W]

SP has covered it well. I'd say that for all the stick our midfield takes, Stenny's was absolutely anonymous after the break. Cuddihy showed why he should be playing centrally with a great box to box display and Goodwillie was able to start making his runs into the channels. Don't think for one minute that we deserved to win but we looked far more likely to get the winner in the last ten minutes. We might need to score 2/3 goals to win a game, but other teams needs to get 2/3 to do so against us. Not a bad thing to get a point in a game that wasn't a classic.

Crawford made a couple of decent saves, his kicking was abysmal and I'd like to see the goal again to see if he could have done better. Good to have that experience as an option if Currie ends up injured/suspended again. Nicoll and McNiff improved after the break, Stewart was barely involved (not really a criticism as Stenny had nothing wide right) bar one great headed clearance first half. Ramsay will play better. Miller can't play worse. Neither can the two strikers.

Hopefully for the Stirling game we'll have some new faces but I'd be disappointed if we didn't line-up with Ramsay, Wright and Burbidge behind Goodwillie.

Dunlops did fine for Stenny, and McGuigan was a handful. Midfield was rotten though the minute we started to involve ours in the game.