Clydebank boss Budgie McGhie was full of praise for his side after beating Greenock Juniors 2-0 following a four week lay off writes David Brockett.

The win was Clydebank’s sixth win from 10 games and goalkeeper Josh Lumsden kept his eighth clean sheet of the season in the process.

With league leaders Largs Thistle not in action, Bankies closed the gap at the top of the Super League First division to three points.

McGhie: “I’m delighted to start the new year with three points, and I think it’s especially good when you consider that some of the teams around us in the league weren’t playing, so it’s an important and well deserved three points on the board for us.

"I thought the boys turned in a great performance. It maybe wasn’t the classiest when it comes to football, but they did what they had to, they created enough chances, took chances and were quite professional in the way went about their business in seeing the game out.”

McGhie admitted the Christmas lay-off coming on the back off a number of postponement is a nerve-racking time for a manager with limited opportunities to work with the players. However recent friendlies gave McGhie a chance to run the rule over midfielder Cammy Haddow - who has signed on a delayed transfer from Harmony Row - with the midfielder making his competitive debut in Saturday’s win.

He said: "I think you’re always a bit nervous when you get back into it, but thankfully we managed to get two friendlies in with Beith and Wishaw which helped enormously.

"Cammy is a young guy with a lot of ability, and he’s doing well for Harmony Row. The agreement we have in place means they have first shout on him, but their game was postponed and we brought him in and with 15 minutes to go we felt it was the right opportunity to give him a taste of football at this level.

"He’s done well in the training session’s he’s been involved in, and particularly in the second half of Monday night’s friendly against Wishaw. "

Next up for Clydebank is an away tie at Rutherglen, and McGhie will be hoping to have an almost full strength squad to select from.

He said: “Johnny Allan, Derek Carcary and Robbie Halliday are still carrying injuries, but there has been improvements especially with Johnny, so we’re just hoping we can get them back within the next couple of weeks. With signing Jamie (Lyden) Robert (Tiropoulos) and having young Cammy in and around the squad, it’s given us a wee bit more strength and depth to the squad and competition for places so we’re quite well fixed heading into the new year.