A moment of madness for Clyde
New signing Finnie has crazy minute
A minute of madness from Clyde’s Ryan Finnie ruined his first start for the Bully Wee by helping Arbroath leave Broadwood with a 2-1 win.
The Gayfield side were leading through Colin Hamilton’s first half goal however, the hosts got level on 65 minutes through Peter MacDonald.
And they looked the likely winners until Finnie had 60 seconds to forget.
The former Annan man got himself booked for simulation with 19 minutes left and shortly afterwards he was off when he kicked the ball away after a free kick had been awarded.
To make matters worse, Ricky Little headed the winner from Bobby Linn’s dead ball.
Clyde manager Barry Ferguson said: “It was a crazy minute with Ryan being sent off and then someone losing their marker at the free kick.
“If we had kept 11 men on the pitch we would have won.”
Clyde also had number two Bob Malcolm sent to the stand after just eight minutes.
Ferguson added: “I said to the assistant to speak to me and I would speak to Bob but they made the decision to send him off.”
With Ross Perry and Phil Johnston ruled out by injury, the Bully Wee boss gave Marc McKenzie a debut and added Finnie to the starting line-up.
The match had a scrappy start, with the visitors causing some problems for the Clyde defence with decent deliveries into the box.
However, the first clear-cut chance fell to David Gormley when he was able to pull down a McKenzie cross, but the forward blasted the ball over the bar.
Arbroath took the lead on 26 minutes when a corner caused panic and after goalkeeper John Gibson had failed to deal with a header, Colin Hamilton prodded the ball home at the second attempt from close range.
The Bully Wee should have been at least level before half- time though, as three more good chances were passed up. Peter MacDonald couldn’t get a clean connection on the ball inside the box, Gormley put a header over the bar and McKenzie sliced a volley wide at the back post.
Early in the second half, The Red Lichties missed a great chance to extend their lead when Bobby Linn opted to chip the ball over Gibson and it was the wrong choice, as the ball sailed over the bar.
The equaliser came when Ewan McNeil hared down the right and swung over a cross for MacDonald to nod home from six yards out.
After Finnie had been dismissed Little had acres of space to head home the winner.
Red Lichties gaffer Dick Campbell said: “Clyde have the highest expectation level in this league to be playing at a higher level so to win is great.
“I felt that we deserved the win however, I was concerned at 1-1 but we recovered really well and controlled the game thereafter.”