Conor Lynass scored his first Clydebank hat-trick as Bankies moved into the top six with a 3-0 win over Hurlford on Saturday.

Lynass opened the scoring just before half-time and added to that tally twice in the second-half while Hurlford were eventually reduced to eight men.

Bankies boss Gordon Moffat made just one change to the side that beat Cumnock last week with captain Alan Vezza replacing the suspended Gary McMenamin at centre-back.

Both sides struggled to make their mark on proceedings during the opening exchanges with each side resorting to speculative shots from range.

The first major flashpoint came after Liam Rowan halted a Ford attack. Visiting striker Calum Watt then appeared to lash out and kick Rowan before being shown just a yellow card.

It took 16 minutes for Bankies to threaten for the first time, but Kyle Munro was unable to find a way past Chris Murchie from a free-kick.

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From the next attack, Chris Black found Nicky Little with a pin-point cross field pass before laying it off to Cammy McClair who dinked it over the bar.

It took until just over the half hour for Hurlford to carve out their first good opportunity. Paul Caddis sent Watt clear with a neat reverse pass, but Marc Waters had no trouble in making the stop.

But, just before half-time, Bankies went ahead. After tracking back, Lynass won possession and drove forward at the Hurlford defence, only for Chris McKnight’s attempted clearance to prod the ball straight into the path of Little who took it wide before rolling it across goal for Lynass to stab in his first of the afternoon.

Clydebank took confidence from that and got their second goal just after the hour mark.

Having initially chased down an earlier effort, Lynass was aware enough to nip in from behind Murchie to latch on to Richard McKillen’s headed back pass and slot in for an easy second.

Any hope Hurlford had of salvaging something was dashed on 71 minutes when Liam Caddis was the first of three Ford players to be shown a straight red card. From a corner on the right, Rowan appeared to clip the heels of a Hurlford attacker with referee Ryan Oliver unmoved. After a stramash inside the area, Caddis was shown a straight red card for his vociferous protests.

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With the man advantage, Bankies made the visitors pay the penalty when they added a third from the spot. With Little hauled to the ground, the usual designated taker passed the penalty to Lynass who sent Murchie the wrong way to claim the match ball.

Things went from bad to worse soon after for Ford when another defensive howler saw them reduced to nine men. With Murchie racing from his goal, the keeper had no option but to handle a misjudged back pass before seeing red.

Adam Hodge was then dismissed after the final whistle as Bankies saw out a comfortable victory to record their fifth win in six games.

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