Lennon laments fixture fatigue for Clyde

ANY prospect of a Scottish Cup upset in Perth vanished within the first half-hour of a tie where the chasm in class between St Johnstone and Clyde was undeniable.

But the team sheets lodged by rival managers Callum Davidson and Danny Lennon suggested that, even before kick-off, their thoughts had already wandered towards bigger challenges lying in wait over the next few days.

Davidson has a quarter-final weekend tie looming in Glasgow hard on the heels of hosting Rangers at McDiarmid on Wednesday as he attempts to close in on fifthplaced Livingston.

Lennon, on the other hand, is locked in a fight for survival in League One. Tomorrow’s trip to bottom side Forfar Athletic will be their fifth game in 10 days, with the Bully Wee manager letting it be known he is less than impressed with the demands being imposed on part-time footballers juggling day jobs.

“Part-timers are out there giving it absolutely everything. They have to get up every morning after every game and do a shift. So there’s no recovery time,” Lennon lamented after the 2-0 defeat. “The Scottish Cup is a great romantic story. But it seems to be geared towards making it exciting by getting all the big clubs in there.

“It’s been a very challenging month for all part-time clubs, but for us in particular because we had games to catch up on.

“I’m not getting the violin out but I just feel that the lower league clubs, League One and Two, have been really shafted here in terms of the demands placed on the welfare of the players.”

A fifth-minute close range strike from Israeli centre Guy Melamed settled Saints and provider Michael O’Halloran turned taker in the 21st minute when he was played in by Steve May to provide an assured finish for just his second goal of the campaign.

The scoreline would have been much more emphatic but for the performance of the Bully Wee’s promising Slovakian keeper Matej Vajs, who kept Saints at bay.