Boss wants players to ‘lay it on the line’

MARK McLaughlin has called upon Clyde’s players to give everything to drag the club into League One through play-offs.

The Bully Wee secured their place in the top four with Saturday’s win over Stirling Albion, and they will now take on Elgin City tonight at Broadwood in the first leg of the play-off semi final.

Experienced campaigner McLaughlin is gearing his teammates up for one last push to get Clyde moving back up the divi- sions to where he feels they belong, asking them to make sure they have no regrets when they leave the pitch this evening.

“We’ve got four games now to go and win promotion, and we don’t want to look back after these games and think we could have pushed ourselves maybe that five per cent more,” he said.

“We have to go out there and lay it on the line, and come off that park knowing that we couldn’t have done anything else.

“If we do that, and a wee bit of lady luck doesn’t go our way, then there isn’t much you can do about that. But if we give it everything we’ve got, then hopefully we can take a lead up to Elgin.

“Our sole objective this season is to get promotion, and we can only do it now through the playoffs, so we are fully focused on achieving our goal.”

McLaughlin believes that Clyde have the talent and the desire to go all the way in the playoffs, but he recognises how important it will be to put themselves in a good position ahead of the trip to Borough Briggs at the weekend.

He also feels that despite League One side Cowdenbeath carrying the favourites tag in the play-offs, the Blue Brazil won’t have it their own way.

He said: “Cowdenbeath will probably think they are the favourites because they have socalled better players who play at a higher level.

“It’s all to play for, and we have to be at the top of our game.”