the_bully_wee

It's a Christmas miracle!

Lee Hamilton in at Clyde as well.

Robbie Leitch in now. Can't say I remember much of him, @CoveRangers1922 is probably the best man for the job on this one!

They've found another ink cartridge!

That's a terrific signing, but are we trying to clean sheet our way to safety or something?

Clyde fans have been told to expect at least half a dozen incomings, and were assured that there was a keen sense of urgency with regards to getting much of the business done as early in January as possible. It'll be really interesting to see what the approach is; will they be decent, experienced League Two level players to keep us afloat, like the Declan Byrnes that higher-ups are looking to trim from their squads, or will they be big signings that could meet McCall's ambitions of a promotion tilt next season? Even as few as three high quality signings in key areas (between the sticks, left back, central midfield) would probably be enough for us to fairly comfortably pull clear of the trapdoor, so it's giddily exciting to know we are likely to see twice as many incomings.

These free hit kind of games are quite nice for our players and fans alike, though I can't foresee that the pressure exclusively being on Stenny will count for much given the run they're enjoying. There's been a significant improvement in our shape since McCall has come in, though, and if Rennie and Young can combine in the manner that they did yesterday then they will be able to cause some issues, regardless of how good Stenny's defence may be. Leslie was a bright spark throughout in the first meeting of the sides and it'll be interesting to see what kind of part he plays, if any, after a bright cameo against Dumbarton.

I doubt he'd have rushed out twice to face up Rennie (once making an excellent save, the other time doing enough to make him put it wide) if he lacked any kind of bravery. You see keepers at the top level regularly beaten by similar hits to the third; from relatively close range, powerful, around shoulder height. The real clanger for that goal comes from Lynas, who gets sucked in and also enjoys zero support down that line from MacLean when he's got an overload to deal with. The cross he dropped in the first half under very little pressure was the only thing (other than some of his kicking into the wind) which made me look at Broun and think "dodgy"; I don't blame you lot for putting him under the microscope when you're looking to replace an excellent first-choice, but to chuck him under the bus for that third goal is extremely harsh imo.

Hard to say anything about Dumbarton's penalty award based on those highlights unfortunately. I wasn't sure yesterday whether the contact for our penalty was inside the box, but it absolutely was. Such a shame that such a concession was League Two Tony's only contribution to the game other than celebrating a penalty with the worst "griddy" you'll ever see. You frequently see keepers at a much higher level caught out by shots like Leslie's, so I wouldn't be too harsh on the young lad there. I wasn't aware at the time in amongst the bedlam just how well Dunachie did for the equaliser. To pull it down and hit it on the turn like that and in those conditions is something most strikers would be proud of. What a man, and what a goal!

The ref was really poor, for both teams. Both penalties seemed to be questionable (Dumbarton's moreso), he got in the way of a Clyde player in a fairly standard passage of play in the first half, he had his decision overturned by the equally poor stand-side linesman in the second half, while a Clyde player was off the park to ready himself for a throw-in he'd initially awarded for us. As I said earlier, it's par for the course at this level but I don't think it had much of a bearing on the outcome today, mercifully. Dumbarton fans will rightly be very disappointed by their collapse but it was as good a spectacle as I think you could ask for in those conditions. In the end, a draw was about fair.

You'd be forgiven for think that spray was FifeSons' tears and not a drizzle of rain. The poor boy is having a horrible evening here.

Really sad to see FifeSons hurting this badly. Never nice to see someone going through it at Christmas.

Spot on. It's like clockwork. Really sad to see their young keeper being chucked under the bus, it must be #FazIn this week.

We really had to take a two goal advantage into half time, which we should've. Mental officiating and a piece of vintage bizarro misfortune/Leighfielding have scuppered us. Draw is the best we can hope for now but that's wishful imo.

Only Clyde FC could concede two goals from what has occurred in this game. Full respect.

An absolutely disgraceful decision. Par for the course with the absolute losers you get at this level.

All very true, my post was just in response to a suggestion that clubs aren't better off as a result of owning and operating their own stadiums. I'd like to think that a lot lessons would be learned from all of the many failures in Cumbernauld if we were to secure ourselves a permanent home in Glasgow.

Not sure what the point of the above post is, really. Having withered as a club over the past 20 years, with our only periods of relative success coming as a result of ruinous overspending/borrowing (and some periods of abject failure while going headlong into the red too!), surely it should be clear by now that any kind of material improvement to the club's current and future fortunes is nigh on impossible to enact while we remain tenants at the behest of, and generating profit for, other clubs/entities. Regardless of the costs associated with running your own stadium (a large chunk of which would be covered by grants, incidentally), stadium ownership and its associated benefits represent the primary reason why clubs of a similar core support and without sizeable external financial backing are consistently able to outspend and outperform us. We are sorely hampered in terms of attracting sponsorship and hospitality opportunities because we are an itinerant club, functioning away from its historical home and not part of a community; a look around the advertising hoardings of just about every club we come to face will show dozens of their local businesses. You'd be surprised at how quickly you can start fleshing out your hospitality and sponsorship opportunities when you are a visible force for good in your local community and producing a decent on-park product alongside that.

It's obviously a profound disappointment, as Crownpoint looked wonderful - plenty of existing infrastructure there to build around, very close to our traditional home, ideal type of community, brilliantly located for a matchday experience. As others have said though I don't think the board can be blamed for this one - having read both parties' initial admissions to GCC, there probably only should've been one getting close to it on merit. The club won't say too much as the ultimate goal of relocation to Glasgow depends on maintaining a positive working relationship with the council, but the mechanics of Finnart's bid all sound fairly crooked to me. As far as 'back-up plans' go, it sounds as though there is another available site which some on the board and relocation group have a similarly strong interest and belief in; Thomson's words at the fan meeting the other week were that they "wouldn't thank you for calling it a back-up", but that the site mentioned would require more work initially than Crownpoint would have. It sounds as though, despite the CP bid remaining their priority, some work on that location has been going on in the background while waiting on this decision. Hopefully we are in a position to hear more on that one soon.

My gut feeling is that it's too soon yet, but this is exactly the kind of fixture with the potential to herald Dumbarton's annual implosion. Given the extremely likely outcome of falling a double-digit tally of points behind champions elect Stenny, anything but a win would surely have the fickle FazOuts turning to toxicity for the remainder of the campaign. Now that we're very much into the final leg of the Dead Men Walking's farewell tour, I have to say that I'm more concerned about the Stenhousemuir game, given their better form and our tendency to produce honking performances at home; we could still take a handsome rogering in this one though, so any kind of points would be extremely welcome.

He can play across the back line, but if it's anywhere but centre back then it's usually right back, where he played a fair amount in his Stirling/Berwick days. He's not played there much in recent years, though. He's got a lot of experience of playing as the outside CB in the back three so it'll be interesting to see what set-up McCall favours once he's got a good number of his own lads in.

Good, solid signing that. Decent on the ball, aggressive, plenty of experience and still at a good age. More of this!

I could honestly listen to McCall talking about binning handfuls of these idiots all day. "I gave some people that I've not seen an opportunity... We'll see what happens there." "I'm getting a far clearer picture of players; who to keep and who will not be getting kept, and that will be made public in the next two or three weeks."

Draw last week from a game we probably should've won, and a narrow defeat this week from a game you'd expect us to be mullered in. Trending upwards at least, even with the dead men walking.