Clyde 0 Forfar Athletic 0

Having celebrated a recent brace of wins, Forfar fans would travel down the M74 in optimistic mood to Clyde FC’s still-temporary home, New Douglas Park. On the other hand, Clyde would have been looking to improve on last weekend's defeat to Dumbarton, with the match day programme summing the game up for Clyde as: ‘chance after chance [and] ... wasteful finishing...’.

As Saturday’s match would, ultimately, drift listlessly to a 0-0 draw and with Clyde having had many more chances to score than the Loons, these comments would prove to be entirely prophetic of another frustrating afternoon for Darren Young and his team, as they failed to score, despite working Forfar stalwart, Marc McCallum on 6 occasions.

Forfar made one change from last week: Mackenzie Lemon coming in for Chris Scott; whilst Clyde’s starting 11 featured several new and recent recruits.

In the first minute of this game, Clyde set their stall out, James Hilton forcing a corner kick, which Hilton subsequently took himself, looking for the intimidating height of ex-Loon, Logan Dunachie, at the back post, but the ball just skipped over the Clyde attackers, going for a goal kick. Two minutes later, Clyde attacked again, this time Taylor Sutherland, brother of Forfar new-boy, Jake, finding himself free in the box, only to fire tamely at McCallum. Following this, both Craig Morrison and Jake Dolzanski made fine last-man defensive tackles to deny Clyde’s advances. In the 10th minute, Forfar had a good chance of their own to score, following some lovely touch-play between Lewis Lorimer and Scott Shepherd, with Martin Rennie then seeing his shot slide just over from close range. Rennie would have another chance not long after this, as confusion in the Clyde box meant that Rennie was able to charge down a clearance, only to see his chance cleared by keeper, Jay Hogarth.

As Clyde continued to press, Forfar stood strong, with captain Stuart Morrison again impressing with his strength of play as well as his tactical calmness. Lewis Lorimer also showed good touch - firstly digging the ball out from a melee of 3 Clyde players - and then skinning Clyde’s Robson at the byline. In 28 minutes, Clyde had another corner kick, taken by Hilton, finding Murdoch whose shot was firstly fisted robustly away by McCallum, then the clearance ricocheted into a crowd of players, the ball finally cleared off the line at the back post by Forfar's Ross MacLean.

As half-time approached, Clyde saw a dreadful mix up during a training ground-type free kick routine, then Marely Redfern woefully scuffed a 12 yard effort wayward of the Forfar goal and - right on the break - Clyde's keeper, Hogarth, fired another goal kick straight out of play for a throw in - an offence he would repeat once and again in the second half.

The second half began as the first half ended; with Clyde putting the ball straight out of play. Clyde had clearly been bolstered by Darren Young’s half-time talk though, as they firstly had a couple of shots charged down in the Forfar area, then Andrew Murdoch had his pile-drive shot strongly punched away by Marc McCallum in the away goal. Mackenzie Lemon was growing into the game for Forfar however, with a good run down the left finding Craig Slater in the box and then Lemon defended well as he cut out a dangerous run from Marley Redfern in the 50th minute.

Five minutes later, Jim Weir decided to freshen things up for Forfar, by bringing on Kieran Inglis for Scott Shepherd, who had been working tenaciously all afternoon. The play by now was going from end to end and in 58 minutes, Stuart Morrison once again came to Forfar’s rescue with an imposing challenge, point blank, again Murdoch finding himself in a good position for the Bully Wee. Lemon again was involved, provoking Hogarth to yet another hoof of the ball straight out of play.

In 65 minutes, Forfar made more subs, this time Clyde’s player of the season 2024/5, Martin Rennie and the dogged Lewis Lorimer making way for Jamie Richardson and new face, Jake Sutherland.

Clyde’s James Hilton still proved to be dangerous. In 72 minutes, Forfar’s Angus Mailer was yellow carded for a pull on the Clyde attacker as Hilton threatened and in 73, Hilton pulled a good snapshot just inches over from the edge of the box. In 76, Forfar thought they were in when Slater pinched the ball, laying it off firstly to Inglis, then MacLean, only to see the ball gathered safely by Hogarth at the edge of the Clyde penalty area. In 77 minutes, Craig Slater went into referee, Joal Kennedy’s book for something that looked pretty innocuous.

Both sides would toil away for the last 10 minutes, but it was Clyde who would continue to waste the ball around the Forfar box. However, Clyde’s Kyle Connell had Marc McCallum diving at full stretch to save in 88 minutes and Angus Mailer saw a decent glancing header just wide for Forfar just after this.

As the whistle blew in 93 minutes, most in the stadium had long ago accepted the outcome of this match, as it finished Clyde 0 Forfar 0. Clyde fans must have left the ground thinking that their team should have won this match by plenty, indeed, manager Darren Young lamented his sides ‘shyness in front of goal’ in his post-match interview. On the other hand, Forfar’s centre-back pairing of Morrison and Dolzanski looks very solid, Lewis Martin at right back is a willing runner, Slater controlled much of the game in midfield and Lorimer and Mailer looked sharp coming forward.

Next up - a tasty top of the table clash with Stirling Albion at home ...

Match report by Alex Colquhoun