John helps save day
Clyde bag first cup points
Clyde keeper John Gibson was the hero with a sudden death penalty stop from Berwick’s Graeme Beveridge to help his side gain their first Betfred Cup points.
The two teams were spot on with their kicks and with the shoot-out locked at 5-5, up stepped Jordan Lowdown to fire down the middle before Gibson pushed away Beveridge’s waist-high shot.
But Bully Wee boss Barry Ferguson was unhappy the game was forced to a shoot-out after defensive blunders blew their lead.
He said: “The mistakes that led to their goal was a bit of a bummer. But we totally dominated the first half and were the better team so there’s a lot of positives.
“But wee mistakes can kill you. We did feel sorry for ourselves, but then got back into it and were the better team.”
The Bully Wee commanded most of the first half without making the breakthrough as David Gormley had two bites at a near post chance in 15 minutes.
He whacked his first off a defender then screwed the rebound into the side netting. Steven Thomson then came close to scoring for Berwick with a vicious inswinging corner from the right which forced keeper Gibson to paw the ball out from under the bar in 42 minutes.
Four minutes after the restart and MacDonald broke the deadlock after latching onto a through ball from Gormley after Easton set up the move.
MacDonald delayed his attempt until keeper Sean Brennan spread himself and dinked a six yard angled shot over him from the right and the ball bounced in.
MacDonald then fired a close range shot against the face of the bar after linking up with Gormley in 55 minutes.
But the match exploded on the hour with a fierce, two-footed tackle by Lee Hamilton on Clyde’s Scott Linton leaving him in agony sparking a mass shoving match.
Players from both sides charged to the scene before referee Graham Beaton booked Hamilton and Kevin McKinlay of Berwick plus Clyde’s Martin McNiff.
On 64 minutes Berwick equalised when Jordyn Sheerin raced from halfway after a blunder by Phil Johnston, cut inside the box and drilled under Gibson.
Then Berwick keeper Brennan pulled off an astonishing one-handed save to claw away a 10 yard volley by Gormley to see the game go to spot-kicks.