Clyde vs East Fife

[cfcuk]

Clearly a massive step up today compared with basically every Broadwood match since last Christmas, and one of the problems with only signing players from League 2/below (bar Mitchell), is that they all need to try and move into a different gear. That said, although East Fife were probably the better side for longer, they didn't create much either. A point each probably fair.
The big issue for me is that we've not learnt a huge amount from the League cup games. We played okay first half but East Fife stuck Watt on Grant at half-time and we couldn't find any way to then play out from the back. It was exactly the same against Airdrie. The number of kicks that Mitchell managed to direct on top of Johnston was ridiculous, the ball just kept coming back onto us.
Mitchell is doing a good job so far even if his distribution isn't as consistent as Currie's, he's better at all other facets of the game. Cuddihy looked like he'll be out a few weeks with a hamstring injury and we'll miss him, even if he was bang average today. Petkov played well apart from one Tom Lang moment when he tried to dribble around the whole East Fife side. I think Rumsby will struggle in this league, looked like he was caught on his heels at the goal (and a few other times). McNiff could maybe have done better at the goal but I think it was Johnston who was weak in the challenge up the pitch, and Rumsby as well. East Fife didn't really take advantage of him playing left-back.
Grant had a good first half, quieter second when man-marked. McStay had a good game after the first five minutes and looks like he's getting back towards fitness. Smith and Johnston both drift in and out of the game, good quality at times but still not on the same wavelength as some of the others. Wallace is average at everything; that probably makes him a decent player. Goodwillie......if his ankle is still sore, I've no idea why he's been playing against Bonnyrigg and Partick Thistle. He looked a lot fitter today than against Thistle, but equally as poor. on the ball.
The subs bench is a bit of a warning as well. Not much on there apart from Lamont.

as i said lennon blames wallace for the goal , but no its johnston or rumsby ,if mcniff cuts out a bread and butter cross field pass it aint a goal. overall i thought we played welll in spells in the game if we dont sorr out left back the we will continue to conceed cheap goals

enjoyed the gane streets ahead of the s**e
we endured last season.

[Pride Of The Clyde]

Pretty much everyone is in agreement, Clyde better in the 1st half and EF the better team in the 2nd. Some pleasant football from both sides at times but equally some sloppy play at times and a game very few chances , a draw was probably a fair result.

I thought the quality of the officials in charge would have  improved up a division but no, still the same old crap. For the most part the ref was decent, a few odd decision apart but the stand side linesman had a stinker and really needs to refresh his knowledge concerning the offside rule or better yet just chuck it and do us all a favour.

[Sao Paulo]

You've got to stick a few filters on today's match in order to see it for what it was. Fitness firstly. Anyone looking back on the match honestly would acknowledge that its intensity was unusually low over the piece, especially for a season opener. The fixture pile-up of a pre-season is in part responsible for that in my opinion and I think we could do with most of the lads having one evening off before Raith next week. Another way to make this point might be to say: there's no way that East Fife team drew with Hearts; a far sharper and more intense East Fife team obviously did however.

Filter the new pitch next. I don't know much about how these surfaces bed-in but the old turf had a much greater predictability about it. Perhaps this one will slicken up with time. Whatever the case is, it'll work against us until it does.

Finally, filter the hot and dry conditions. As a package - along with the pitch and the pre-season hangover - these things don't bode well for teams like East Fife or Clyde whose strengths aren't in launching the ball from back to front. All the afore answers for a lot of how today's game played out; lethargic, miscued, mistimed, sloppy, arsing up the basics. Aside from five or six memorably good passages of play from each team putting doubt in his mind, a new-coming neutral might've thought he was watching football at a much lower level.

Beyond the filters, well... If I grudgingly accept that 3-5-2 isn't going to happen then I'd say we picked just about the best team we could, so credit to Lennon for that.

Individually, now. Goodwillie was worse than a man short and should've been hooked earlier. McNiff continues not to be a left-back. Wallace done way better than Svyersten in front of McNiff but wasn't faultless. Smith covered a diminshed looking Barry Cuddihy reasonably well on the other side and made himself a nuisance on occassion. Johnston was his usual self in spells but, like Grant and McStay, really suffered from having a poverty of options in front of him (Goodie). The defence is a newly assembled one, sure, but still left a lot to be desired. The entire second half was defended on our heels. Rumsby's going to struggle in a four without a very sharp, sweeping partner like Lang beside him; that's only what happened last season when he faced either the more hard-working and mobile forwards like Sheppard, Lyle or McAllister or bigger forwards like Blair Henderson. It was also the case that he and Petkov barely communicated today and they must improve on that. Petkov should be bollocked for his wild showboating but done alright on the basics - generally won his headers, read play well at times; but caught completely cold with play coming past him more than once, highlighting that he's an inexperienced and recently converted centre-half. An improvement on Howie, perhaps. Time will tell.

Grant and McStay, particularly the latter, struggled to impose as they have in the past but showed their quality enough to let us know they're not overawed, riding a promotion high or otherwise not yet realising the 'bigness' of the step-up or any other such utter bumf that's been fed to us and will fast become a cliche. McStay's reverse pass to put in Smith in the second-half was sumptuous. If we'd Rankin back in there instead of Johnston to stiffen things up and provide leadership, plus a lively Goodwillie ahead of them, and maybe some real wide-threat to release, they'd all handle this league no danger. It's only how they handled League 2 so well last season.

I would reserve judgement on East Fife because of all the unusual circumstance surrounding today. If I could guess, glimpsing through the fog, I'd say we and they will be close together in table terms. Neither we nor they seem like strong play-off contenders at the moment, albeit for different reasons. If we'd their defence, we'd be challenging. If they'd our midfield and attacking options (fit), they'd be challenging. The likes of Falkirk, Airdrie or Raith would've taken us for a few today. Easy.

I think we've made a pig's ear of recruitment for the defence, I really do. And I think we should've sought out a big lump to stick up front, especially for games like these where our play-from-the-back game is stifled - any sensible team would do the same to us. We're a lower mid-table mob at best as things stand.

Probably make Smith or Mitchell our MOTM. Distribution wasn't great from the latter but done the other goalkeeping basics fairly well.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Sao Paulo
Typo

[SLClyde]

Agree with most said above, we edged first half, east fife edged second.

Anton Dowds threw or kicked the ball away 3 times after coming on, and Higgins thumping the ball into the crowd was uncalled for. 

Goodwillie is clearly not fit, but other injuries forced us into playing him. I thought McNiff was a lot better today than the last few, the goal came from that side however. 

Thought petkov was really good, had duggan in his back pocket, him going off was the worst thing that happened to us. He’s an improvement on Howie. 

Mcstay and grant worked just as well as they did last season and actually thought there was a good bit of fight in them. Wallace again played well. 

Overall a point was fair against a very decent east fife side. Clear to see it’s a good step up this season. 

[Mantis Toboggan]

Have to say East Fife’s live stream of the game for people abroad was excellent. Good quality and really nicely done

[cfcuk]

You've got to stick a few filters on today's match in order to see it for what it was. Fitness firstly. Anyone looking back on the match honestly would acknowledge that its intensity was unusually low over the piece, especially for a season opener. The fixture pile-up of a pre-season is in part responsible for that in my opinion and I think we could do with most of the lads having one evening off before Raith next week. Another way to make this point might be to say: there's no way that East Fife team drew with Hearts; a far sharper and more intense East Fife team obviously did however.

Filter the new pitch next. I don't know much about how these surfaces bed-in but the old turf had a much greater predictability about it. Perhaps this one will slicken up with time. Whatever the case is, it'll work against us until it does.

Finally, filter the hot and dry conditions. As a package - along with the pitch and the pre-season hangover - these things don't bode well for teams like East Fife or Clyde whose strengths aren't in launching the ball from back to front. All the afore answers for a lot of how today's game played out; lethargic, miscued, mistimed, sloppy, arsing up the basics. Aside from five or six memorably good passages of play from each team putting doubt in his mind, a new-coming neutral might've thought he was watching football at a much lower level.

Beyond the filters, well... If I grudgingly accept that 3-5-2 isn't going to happen then I'd say we picked just about the best team we could, so credit to Lennon for that.

Individually, now. Goodwillie was worse than a man short and should've been hooked earlier. McNiff continues not to be a left-back. Wallace done way better than Svyersten in front of McNiff but wasn't faultless. Smith covered a diminshed looking Barry Cuddihy reasonably well on the other side and made himself a nuisance on occassion. Johnston was his usual self in spells but, like Grant and McStay, really suffered from having a poverty of options in front of him (Goodie). The defence is a newly assembled one, sure, but still left a lot to be desired. The entire second half was defended on our heels. Rumsby's going to struggle in a four without a very sharp, sweeping partner like Lang beside him; that's only what happened last season when he faced either the more hard-working and mobile forwards like Sheppard, Lyle or McAllister or bigger forwards like Blair Henderson. It was also the case that he and Petkov barely communicated today and they must improve on that. Petkov should be bollocked for his wild showboating but done alright on the basics - generally won his headers, read play well at times; but caught completely cold with play coming past him more than once, highlighting that he's an inexperienced and recently converted centre-half. An improvement on Howie, perhaps. Time will tell.

Grant and McStay, particularly the latter, struggled to impose as they have in the past but showed their quality enough to let us know they're not overawed, riding a promotion high or otherwise not yet realising the 'bigness' of the step-up or any other such utter bumf that's been fed to us and will fast become a cliche. McStay's reverse pass to put in Smith in the second-half was sumptuous. If we'd Rankin back in there instead of Johnston to stiffen things up and provide leadership, plus a lively Goodwillie ahead of them, and maybe some real wide-threat to release, they'd all handle this league no danger. It's only how they handled League 2 so well last season.

I would reserve judgement on East Fife because of all the unusual circumstance surrounding today. If I could guess, glimpsing through the fog, I'd say we and they will be close together in table terms. Neither we nor they seem like strong play-off contenders at the moment, albeit for different reasons. If we'd their defence, we'd be challenging. If they'd our midfield and attacking options (fit), they'd be challenging. The likes of Falkirk, Airdrie or Raith would've taken us for a few today. Easy.

I think we've made a pig's ear of recruitment for the defence, I really do. And I think we should've sought out a big lump to stick up front, especially for games like these where our play-from-the-back game is stifled - any sensible team would do the same to us. We're a lower mid-table mob at best as things stand.

Probably make Smith or Mitchell our MOTM. Distribution wasn't great from the latter but done the other goalkeeping basics fairly well.

still wanting route one football , suggest you go watch the juniors . as for recruitment in defence your spot on we finished the game yesterday with four central defenders and not one recognised fullback on the bench , why was duffieresigned ? overall thought we played well first half but faded out of it for long spells the save from smith at 1 0 was a belter and think had we went 2 0 we would have won fairly comfortably I suppose east fife could say the same first half a mitchell had two terrific bits of goalkeeping to stop them scoring as for his distribution pinged a couple of perfect long passes maybe you prefer him to boot the ball out of play on the halfway line and he comes out for crosses and communicates really well a right good goalkeeper.

a draw was a fair result we will have to defend better and need sharper DGW but overall going foward we look good

[LiamA]

Have to say East Fife’s live stream of the game for people abroad was excellent. Good quality and really nicely done

Thank you, there is a lot of time & effort goes in to this particularly by my daughter Laura. We had a couple of Clyde fans watching yesterday & whilst it is primarily for EF fans we are happy to provide the facility for opposition fans too. We now have the equipment to be able stream from anywhere (4G signal & permission from the home team permitting) & hope to cover every away game this season. A big thank you to Graham Forrest at Clyde for his help yesterday.

[Sao Paulo]

3 hours ago, cfcuk said:

still wanting route one football , suggest you go watch the juniors . as for recruitment in defence your spot on we finished the game yesterday with four central defenders and not one recognised fullback on the bench , why was duffieresigned ? overall thought we played well first half but faded out of it for long spells the save from smith at 1 0 was a belter and think had we went 2 0 we would have won fairly comfortably I suppose east fife could say the same first half a mitchell had two terrific bits of goalkeeping to stop them scoring as for his distribution pinged a couple of perfect long passes maybe you prefer him to boot the ball out of play on the halfway line and he comes out for crosses and communicates really well a right good goalkeeper.

a draw was a fair result we will have to defend better and need sharper DGW but overall going foward we look good
 

On a scale of 1-10, what's your favourite colour of the alphabet?

[shawfield shed boy]

Scary how much better a mid table League 1 side is compared to League 2.
Even game, we have looked okay though.

Yip. Said it since end o May

Reality check yesterday

[BullyWeeStonehouse]

Thought we did well in the first half but needed another goal in the first half to make things comfortable. 

East Fife definitely were on top in the 2nd half. They looked good going forward and played some nice one-twos and short passes to open us up.

We need Goodwillie fully fit because he wasnt in it today other than scoring the penalty. Also need Love, Rankin and Syversten back fit too.

A good point to start the season though. Few tough games coming up now

[CM.]

15 hours ago, MethilMink said:

Attempting to effect elements outside the rules of the game ie your keeper refusing to give us the ball for a free kick in our own half after about 60 mins. Reminded me of Porto v Celtic 2003

f**k off.

First half was decent but 2nd not so much, not helped by a referee who wanted to stop play at every slight opportunity. Expected better of East Fife after the group they got out of in the cup and some of the players they have

For us, Goodwillie is clearly still not fit enough to start a game yet. Grant had a good first half and an uncharacteristically bad second. Suppose it's a good thing in a way that we know our key players can be much better however that defence still needs a lot of work. Petkov done alright and is better than Howie but still too many sloppy moments in the back line for my liking. There isn't an organiser there either.

Overall, glad to have something on the board for the first game in a higher division but can't see us getting much change from our next 3/4 games if we play like we did in the second half today.

edit - I realise today is now yesterday. 3rd time lucky with this post after Div closing P&B down for the night due to St Mirrens defeat.

Edited August 4, 2019 by C. Muir

[effc loyal]

Game was fairly even yesterday, goodwillie looked poor for Clyde (may be due to injury) and Anton dowds changed the game for east fife! Clyde look to have a player in that number 4 Petkov though! Would’ve taken a draw before the game so reasonably pleased with that

[TheClyde1877]

Pour

On a scale of 1-10, what's your favourite colour of the alphabet?

Pourple?

Wait...

[cfcuk]

On a scale of 1-10, what's your favourite colour of the alphabet?

3 joint red , black and white

[FREDDYFRY]

To be honest I think many of us (Clyde fans) are overreacting a wee bit. On reflection I think we were ok, first game at home against a decent experienced side and we competed.

First half I think we probably overdid the effort if that is possible the result being that we were blowing out our backside by the hour mark. We will learn from that. Also don’t think McNiff as bad as some are saying, yes he is not a LB but was not our worst player yesterday. Need to see their goal again but at the time I don’t think Grant and McStay covered themselves in  glory during they buildup at the time I though they won possession gave it away then repeated the same thing, result they broke quickly down our left hence exposing McNiff where we don’t want him to be. Slight criticism of Lennon here; think subs should have been in earlier, Lamont certainly. We were crying out for some legs and energy in midfield, I assume Love was only making up numbers on bench, otherwise he should have been thrown on too.

Overall would have been happy with point beforehand so not too upset, yes we do have issues address defensively and also in terms of coping with key players injured or at least only half fit.

Pity finances don’t allow a couple of key additions as we are not too far short of being a decent L1 side. A fit Goodwillie would make all the difference too, I’d actually be tempted to take him out of side completely for  couple of weeks and see if he can actually recover properly.  

Edited August 4, 2019 by FREDDYFRY

[Jack Burton]

Goodwillie is clearly not fit enough to be starting but just like last season both Syvertsen and Love are injured at the same time. Lamont should have came on earlier as we really only got back into the game in the second half once the change was made.

Pitch wasn't great and both sides had plenty of mishit passes or players falling over.

Thought a draw was a fair result. Obviously a lot of areas for improvement but not a bad start to the league season.

[chas]

Crowd?

 

[sammytroot]

15 minutes ago, chas said:

Crowd?

 

836 according to BBC.

Thought that there was a decent EF support.

[bullyweehutch]

Thought we played well in the first half and didn't think East Fife were up to much. In the second half East fife seem to find another gear and we collapsed. Overall a draw was fair.
Goodwillie (despite scoring the penalty) should not have played, however I can see why with how good a player he is and Norway being injured as well as Ally Love probably not being full fitness either.
Goody looked miles off the pace and was pulling a caravan after 20 minutes. Hes no where near fit

[bullyweehutch]