BANKIES’ Paul Bell expressed his anger at the way Clydebank fell to defeat at the weekend — insisting Irvine Meadow’s Willie Sawyers admitted he dived to win his side a penalty following Bell’s second half challenge.

The Meadow striker dusted himself down to convert the resultant spot kick to hand Stevie Rankin’s side a 1-0 victory at Holm Park — but Bell couldn’t hide his frustration after the striker appeared to take a tumble in the box in order to win the penalty.

He told SportScene: “It is so frustrating and watching it back on the highlights doesn’t make it any easier.

“I clearly won the ball first and the fact that Sawyers turned round and apologised says it all really.

“He said that he was sorry and that he felt like he had to do it to get the win.

“There are no excuses for diving, it just isn’t right and that rankles with me because we were probably the better team up until that point, all we were lacking was a goal.” Clydebank haven’t enjoyed the best of starts to the league campaign with only one point coming from their opening three ties — a 0-0 draw away to Cumnock.

Bankies will be hoping that they can start to collect points sooner rather than later, with Saturday’s match against Petershill gathering increasing importance before they head to Inverurie to take on Colony Park in the Scottish Cup first round the following weekend.

Bell insisted that despite the results he has seen enough to believe that it is only a matter of time before the wins start to come.

He added: “You have got to remember that some of the players are still learning and they have taken a massive step up to join us after coming from the amateur ranks.

“I think once everyone settles in and we bed in as a team then we are on course to give someone a right thrashing.

“One of these games we are going to put four or five past somebody and I really believe that as we have shown that we can create a number of chances, it is just a case of taking them and we will be back to winning ways.” The veteran centre back missed the majority of pre season with a niggling calf injury which restricted his game time.

Having now played two games on the trot Bell admitted he still wasn’t at full fitness but is more than happy to be playing every week.

He continued: “My fitness levels aren’t what they should be but I have been putting in the extra hours in the gym and hopefully it is paying off.

“I hate missing the games so it is just good to be back playing.

“It was tough for a while but I am getting there.”