Clydebank manager Gordon Moffat praised his players' character after a late win over Blantyre Victoria on Tuesday night made it three wins in a row for the Bankies. 

His team followed up Saturday's 3-0 West of Scotland Cup win over St Cadoc's, and the previous week's league win over Bonnyton Thistle, with a hard-fought 2-1 league victory over their Lanarkshire opponents - in a match where the Bankies played with 10 men for 70 minutes at Holm Park.

The home side got off to a quick start when Ciaran Mulcahy showed some neat feet to find space at the edge of the penalty area before nudging a pass to Liam McGonigle who slotted home inside just two minutes.

 

But on 24 minutes, the Bankies were reduced to playing the rest of the match a man short, after defender Adam Hodge's first touch took the ball away from him and he lunged in with a late challenge that the referee deemed a red. 

Despite that, Moff's men continued to push for a second, creating a few chances before Blantyre struck what could have been a killer blow on 84 minutes, Ronan Kearney capitalising on some dithering defending to strike home and make it 1-1.

As the match clock ticked into stoppage time a cross into the Vics box found substitute Ross McPherson whose shot hit a Vics defender's arm and the striker stepped up to score the resultant penalty and secure the points.

Speaking to the club's social media channels after the match, Moff said: "I thought we deserved to win it. We had a great start getting the goal after two or three minutes.

"But then the red card means we are playing for 70 minutes with ten which is obviously not easy, but I thought the boys dug in well and we didn't decide to sit in, we had a good shape about us.

"Blantyre are scrapping for points and it was difficult, but we showed real character and got there in the end."

 

The Premier Division win comes just three days after a third-round West of Scotland Football League Cup tie win over St Cadoc's at McKenna Park. 

Nicky Little got his first goal of 2022 to open the scoring on Saturday when he hooked the ball from close range after a quarter of an hour.

Clydebank had to withstand a bit of pressure following the goal but settled down in the final 15 minutes when Chris Black curled into the bottom corner and Little made it comfortable from the penalty spot in the closing stages.

Moff welcomed the professional performance in the cup win and was pleased to see some good football along the way, despite the state of the park that only passed a pitch inspection on Saturday morning.

 

Read More: Clydebank FC chair said fairytale run in Scottish Cup just the beginning

 

Speaking to the Post, he said: “I really liked the boys' performance on Saturday. We had to dig in for a wee bit at the start of the second half but other than I felt we were fairly comfortable.

“It was a tight game but we were comfortable defensively and we kept our shape and pressed the ball well, particularly in our own half.

“The surface was tricky. It’s not the worst we’ve ever played on but parts were soft and others were cut up and bobbly so it was difficult. I thought we played decent stuff on it at times, we moved the ball fairly well and adapted quite well.