Clyde’s semi-final dream dashed by Accies

Jim Duffy was left ruing Clyde’s luck after Kurtis Roberts came within a whisker of a last-gasp equaliser in their SPFL Trust Trophy quarter-final defeat to Hamilton Accies last Tuesday night.

The Bully Wee watched their hosts – and landlords at New Douglas Park, where they groundshare – come from 2-1 down to claim a 3-2 triumph

Ex-Accie Ross Cunningham and Paul Kennedy struck either side of a Fergus Owens goal for John Rankin’s men in the first half and after Accies made a quadruple substitution at the break, they rallied to win thanks to strikes from John PierreTiehi and Dan O’Reilly.

With the very last kick of the game, Roberts fired at goal and saw his thumping effort smack the inside of the post and bounce back across the face of goal. It would have forced the game straight to penalties but it is Accies who progress to next month’s semi-final with Queen of the South.

Duffy said:“We are bitterly disappointed about losing the match.

“Our performance was good and we were the better team, there’s no doubt about it. Obviously John brought on more experienced players in the second half and that changed the balance of the game.

“But we are unlucky with the last kick of the ball.

“Kurtis hits a fantastic strike and it hits the inside of the post.

“More often than not they go in so we are not quite getting some of the breaks. For whatever reason, the angle on it didn’t go for us.

“We had a couple of moments on the counter in the second half as well, but congratulations to Hamilton and good luck to them in the semi-final.”

Clyde returned to league business on Saturday away to Falkirk and there was more bad news for the club as they soundly beaten 4-0.

They now face a huge clash on Saturday away to bottom of the table Peterhead, who sit just two points behind them.