Gordon Moffat has challenged his players to prove that Saturday’s shock 4-0 defeat at Benburb was a freak result as Clydebank’s run of nearly two years unbeaten on the road came to a shuddering halt.

Clubs across the West of Scotland Football League returned to the pitch after a three-week festive break on Saturday but it wasn’t a happy return for the Bankies.

After a goalless first half, the Bens scored four after the interval with Luke Murphy, Lewis Lovering and a late Lewis McTaggart double earning the hosts all three points.

Despite the result – Clydebank’s first away defeat since a 2-1 loss at Rutherglen Glencairn on January 18, 2020 – Moff hailed his squad for their unbeaten run away from home and has revealed the challenge now is to start another.

Speaking exclusively to the Post, he said: “We lost three goals at the end of the game in a seven-minute period, which is unacceptable for us as a team and a club.

“It’s not in my make up when it goes 2-0 with seven minutes to go to just sit in and take your medicine. I still felt if we could get the next goal we could maybe nick something – we’ve done it before – but at the same time, when we are attacking in numbers, we need to regroup quickly.

“I trust all my guys, and it’s not a lack of effort – it was just a bit of fatigue, and maybe feeling sorry for ourselves. There were bizarre mistakes that aren’t just like us for the last couple of goals.

“This season, with the way our performances and results have gone, it was a bit of a freak one.

“We were on a good run before Saturday, with six games unbeaten and four clean sheets, so to lose 4-0 was really out of character for us.

“I think the challenge now to all of us, and I include myself in that, is to show people that it was just a bizarre day for us. I would like to think we won’t see anything like that again.

“It hopefully gives us a wee bit of perspective that we were 10 days short of two years unbeaten away, and a result on Saturday would have taken us over that with home games coming up.

“There was a bit of a Covid break in there, but even with that, it was about 20 games in all competitions which is a phenomenal run for any level.

“It’s something that we were proud of, but it’s gone now, so it’s about starting another one and starting some momentum again.”

Clydebank are back at Holm Park this Saturday as they welcome Kirkintilloch Rob Roy ahead of the following week’s Scottish Cup fourth round tie with Annan Athletic.

But Moff insists the cup game with his former side isn’t even on his mind right now as he targets three points this weekend.

He explained: “To put it bluntly, I don’t really care about the Annan game at the moment.

“I want to focus on the Rob Roy game and training before that. Annan will take care of itself in terms of preparation and we’ll get ourselves ready next week for that.”

Kick-off on Saturday is at 1.30pm.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Drumchapel United returned to action with a disappointing 3-2 defeat to Petershill that has blown the title race in Conference C wide open.

Peasy took the lead after just six minutes when Stephen Docherty’s shot flew into the top corner from the edge of the box and that was how the scoring would remain until after the break.

Drum hit back with a quick-fire double on 70 and 71 minutes as Michael McMullin forced the ball over the line from close range before Shaun Bowers put the hosts ahead.

There was time for more drama in the closing stages when Jordan Scott equalised for Petershill and Ross McCabe got the winner from the penalty spot in added time.

Drumchapel remain top of the league, but are now just six points clear of Neilston, who have two games in hand, and 10 ahead of Petershill, who have four games in hand.

Yoker Athletic’s 2022 didn’t get off to the ideal start either as they fell to a 2-1 defeat against Vale of Clyde at Holm Park on Saturday.

The visitors took the lead just after the half-hour but the Whe Ho must have thought they had earned a point when David McGrath equalised with just five minutes to go –only for Vale of Clyde to score from the spot a couple of minutes later as Yoker finished the game with nine men and their opponents with 10.

Drumchapel have no scheduled game for this weekend whilst Yoker travel to Brig O’Lea to take on Neilston with the game getting under way at 1.30pm.