Clydebank boss Kieran McAnespie praised his team’s ‘near perfect start’ to 2019 as his side returned to winning ways with a 3-0 victory over Petershill on Saturday.

Goals from Nicky Little, Jordan Shelvey and Alan Vezza gave Bankies a comfortable win, that saw them register their first victory in four games.

McAnespie said: “It’s a very good start to the new year. We knew coming up here was going to be tough especially coming off the back of last week’s performance and result.

“It was just a case of getting the ball down and playing - and you could see we had a swagger in playing out from the back and I think it’s that kind of confidence we all want to see.

“Sometimes you have to be brave - but not in the sense of smashing into tackles - just by taking the ball under pressure and picking a pass.

“We had to make a couple of adjustments due to some injuries, but the display just shows we can play at a very high tempo.

“Chris Black was absolutely exceptional - he covered just about every blade of grass, and Liam Rowan was excellent slotting in at right-back and Jordan Shelvey’s performance was outstanding. Everything about his movement, his positional sense and his discipline with and without the ball was second to none.”

“Everyone talks about the Troon game which was a complete performance in terms of how we moved the ball and scored the goals, but today we completely dominated the game and built from the back time and time again. On the tactical side and what they were asked to do, they executed almost perfectly.”

McAnespie also admits he got it wrong in Clydebank’s defeat to Irvine Meadow last weekend.

He added: “Last week I asked them to do something that was completely alien to them by going direct. I have to hold my hands up and apologise to everybody for that as the percentage football or long ball game goes against the grain of what we’ve been coaching. That was reflected in the performance.”