From Forthbank Stadium, Stirling

Kick Off: 3.00pm

James Stewart Reporting

The Binos returned to action this week after a two week absence due to the postponements of the Dunfermline and Partick Thistle games. The Binos are entering today’s game missing a few key players including Ross Harris who will be out for the rest of the season after knee surgery also missing today’s game are Stewart Devine and Ross Forsyth also Binos boss Allan Moore is banned from the touchline. The Binos however have Steven Bell making his return to the bench after picking up a injury in January. Former Rangers midfield star Jorg Albertz will be making his debut for Clyde today and Clyde are also missing Chris Higgins and Jimmy Gibson both suspended from today’s game.

Clyde kicked off shooting towards the Morrison’s end of Forthbank. It didn’t take long for the Binos to develop their first chance of the game with a Chris Aitken free kick that just swooped over David Hutton’s crossbar. The Binos maintained the pressure with Colin Cramb passing to Jay Rodriguez who could only manage to nudge his shot into the path of the Clyde keeper. Rodriguez soon turned from shooter to provider for Cramb who was one on one with Hutton and managed to steer past the keeper but Cramb miss hit his shot and sent the ball high over the bar from just 12 yards out. The first booking of the game came when Rodriguez brought down Clyde’s William Gibson.

Clyde were struggling to gain the upper hand in the match as the Binos continued with the bombardment of the Clyde defence. Nathan Taggart nearly took the lead for the Binos after some superb build up but Hutton managed to save Taggart’s effort. John Paul McBride was the second name to go into Craig Thomson’s book for his challenge on David Hutton. Soon after this incident Clyde’s debutant Jorg Albertz managed to get his name taken for his late tackle on Nathan Taggart. Then straight after his booking the former German internationalist grabbed the lead for Clyde with a excellent 35 yard free kick that went sailing in to the back of Myles Hogarth’s goal. Albertz’s strike was the final action of the half and going buy the number of shots on goal the Bino’s were unlucky to be behind at half time.

Half-Time: Stirling Albion 0 V 1 Clyde

As the teams came out for the second half the Binos were looking to get back on level terms but the home side were put on the back foot from the restart as Clyde’s Ruairi MacLennan took a shot at the Stirling goal but it just fizzled out past Hogarth’s right hand post. Striling made their first change of the game when Mark McNally decided that Steven Bell would enter the battle and replace John Paul McBride and for Clyde the 37 year old Jorg Albertz was replaced by Steven Masterton. Things were looking a bit unsettled for the first few moments of the second half but the Binos managed to settle back into the game with Taggart making a run into the Clyde box and setting up Paul Nugent who had a clear shot at goal only to be denied by the hand of Clyde defender Iain Campbell who was immediately dismissed for the deliberate hand ball and a penalty was awarded to the Binos. Campbell decided he would take his time to leave the pitch to see if he could unsettle the Stirling skipper but Chris Aitken calmly slotted home the penalty to level up the score line. The Binos sensed that with Clyde down to 10 men they could probably get a result from the game now and started to push for that elusive second goal. Dusan Bestvina was the next player to have his name taken after he lunged at Rodriguez. Soon after Stirling made their second change of the game when David McKenna came on to replace Nathan Taggart and Clyde also changed things around with Kevin Bradley coming on to replace Gary McSwegan. Clyde didn’t look out of the game despite being down to 10 men as the did manage to regroup and counter attack with Ruairi MacLennan managing to send another shot towards the Stirling goal but it just didn’t seem his day as again his shot was wide of the mark. David McGowan was the next to be booked by Craig Thomson. David McKenna was the next Bino to have a go at getting Stirling in front but after the excellent link up between Steven Bell and Colin Cramb, McKenna couldn’t do anymore than hit his shot at Hutton. Bell was again in the action as he set up Paul Nugent who sent his shot flying at Hutton who was forced to tip Nugent’s effort behind for a corner.

The Binos couldn’t seem to capitalise on having the extra man as time after time passes were not managing to find their targets. The third and final substitutions came with Derek Lilley replacing Andy Graham for Stirling and Michael McGowan replaced David McKay for the Bully Wee. Michael McGowan wasn’t even on the pitch for 5 minutes before he was booked for his tackle on Chris Aitken. With Stirling now playing a fully attacking formation of 2-4-4 to get the winner, Clyde managed to counter attack but the midfield and defence managed to easily control 10 man Clyde. Stephen Masterton had a good chance of stealing the game for Clyde with his goal ward bound shot but luckily for the Binos Myles Hogarth seen it coming and managed to tip it over for Clyde’s first corner of the game. The final action of the game came when Colin Cramb managed to set up Chris Aitken who had a chance to grab the much needed 3 points at the death but David Hutton was on the ball and managed to tip the ball away for a corner.