Clydebank through as Lugar exit in first round

Lugar Boswell Thistle 0

Clydebank 4

The main talking point of this tie was a breathtakingly awful performance by referee Jordan Paterson that left the spectators wondering if the rule book had been rewritten overnight.

This is not to say that Clydebank didn’t deserve to win because right from the start Lugar seemed sluggish and off the pace of the game.

The visitors took the lead after five minutes when Alloa Athletic loan player John Cunningham broke through on he left and although ‘keeper Ronnie Davis blocked his shot, the ball arched upwards for Jordan Shelvey following up to nod into the net.

Bankies should have had more than one goal to show at half time as they passed up several good chances.

Jamie Darroch headed wide with only Davis to beat then Jamie Montgomery scrambled another effort from the same player off the line following a corner.

Davis also made a miraculous double save to deny Chris Black with the ball eventually striking the bar.

Lugar showed little in attack and were guilty of shooting from unfeasibly long distances.

Their efforts lacked the power to trouble goalkeeper Josh Lumsden and, indeed, their unwillingness to move the ball down the right flank led one wag to suggest planting a row of turnips opposite the dressing rooms.

All the same, Clydebank should have been reduced to ten men when, on one foray up the middle, Adam Vezza was deemed, harshly perhaps, to have fouled Ross Ballantyne outside the box with no other defender on the horizon.

The law states that Vezza should have been dismissed but perhaps the referee repented of his decision to award the free kick and issued only a yellow card.

Lugar improved after the break but only Ballantyne managed to test Lumsden with a shot that the ‘keeper diverted over the crossbar.

Clydebank’s Cunningham experienced an Iwelumo moment when he missed an open goal from a yard out but the visitors eventually got a second goal after 74 minutes when, with Darren Curtis grounded in the Lugar box with a head injury, the referee refused to stop play and a shot from sub Ryan Deas was parried by Davis only for Cunningham to net the rebound.

The official’s knowledge of the offside rule was in doubt all afternoon and Steven Higgins seemed well offside when he chased a through ball in the 77th minute.

Davis came off his line and floored the substitute two yards outside the box and the red card for the ‘keeper was, therefore, inevitable.

In the melee that followed, however, the referee completely ignored Higgins’s kick at Davis and, after Lugar made a substitution to bring on goalkeeper James Hart, Higgins placed the ball on the penalty spot.

Unbelievably the official took no action against the Higgins and simply allowed him to take the penalty and put Clydebank 3-0 up.

Right on the final whistle Deas, again looking yards offside, put away the fourth goal off Black’s cross but the fans left the ground talking only of the referee.

LUGAR BOSWELL THISTLE - Davis, Montgomery, Lowe, Crolley, Struthers, Curtis, Graham, Conn, Vance, Ballantyne, Waddell.

Substitutes : Waddell, Connolly, Ross, Wales, Hart.