Clydebank boss Moffat has difficult decision to make

The 19-year-old penned a deal with the first-team at Holm Park in February after impressing with the clubs development side, who he was captain of.

“Monny” trained with the senior side throughout much of last season and made his debut for the club in a 3-1 defeat against Celtic B in February.

The right-side defender has now taken pre-season to make his mark, however, with a trio of impressive performances from defence earning him rave reviews from the Bankies faithful.

Monaghan started both matches in the Blackburn Legacy Shield last weekend, playing 150-minutes across two games, and earned another 20-minutes from the bench in a 2-1 win at Broxburn on Saturday.

Moff has been looking to strengthen in that area of the park having lost Adam Hodge at the end of the 2025/26 campaign, and believes the answer may be right in front of him.

Speaking to the Post, he said: “Matthew was the real bright point of the tournament last weekend where he started both games, he came up from the 20’s last season and earned a first-team contract and has acquitted himself really well.

“It was always in our mind that Matthew was going to be part of the group and whether he goes on loan or not is something we haven’t decided but we wanted to give him the opportunity to be part of the squad.

“He trained with us towards the end of last season so I know what he can do.

“He played a lot of last season as a centre-back so we know he can do that but in the tournament he played more of a right-back and right wing-back and did great, he’s so comfortable on the ball and coming into the middle of the pitch to get involved.

“I was really happy with him and he should be as well with his contribution.

“I’m not in a huge rush to bring in a replacement for Adam because of it, if something comes up during the next month we’ll look at it but Matthew has acquitted himself really well.

“If we were looking to add one more to the squad it would be a defender but we aren’t going to rush into it, it would need to be someone who really enhances the group and kicks us on.”

Goals from Neil McLaughlin and Blair Rossiter earned Clydebank a 2-1 victory over Broxburn Athletic on Saturday to maintain their perfect pre-season so far.

Bankies hosted Kilsyth Athletic at Holm Park last night [Tuesday] on their first match back on the surface after it was re-laid during the summer before pre-season concludes against Irvine Meadow on Saturday with kick-off at 3:00pm.