GUY AND MICHAEL GET SAINTS OFF TO A FLYER AS THEY EYE A CUP DOUBLE
Guy Melamed and Michael O’Halloran kept St Johnstone on course for a cup double.
Israeli striker Melamed struck after just six minutes and when O’Halloran doubled the lead 15 minutes later the Betfred Cup winners were on easy street.
Clyde’s impressive Slovakian keeper Matej Vjas prevented a rout but he couldn’t deny Saints a quarter-final against the winners of today’s Old Firm clash at Ibrox.
Davidson doesn’t care whether it is
Rangers or Celtic his side face next. He said: “I’ve not got a preference who we play but I’ll go and watch it.
“I’ll enjoy the victory tonight and I’ll look forward to whoever we play.
“It’s a job well done. I actually really enjoyed the performance. I thought in the first half we were very good. We probably should have scored a couple more goals to take the game away from Clyde.
“I thought in the last ten, 15 minutes we probably came off it a bit. But I don’t want to be overly critical. And all credit to Clyde – they’ve had some week, playing that amount of games.”
This was the fourth game in seven days for Danny Lennon’s part-timers and the furious Clyde boss blasted the SFA for cramming so many games into the last month.
And his sense of injustice was heightened when Lewis Jamieson’s late strike was chalked off for offside.
Lennon was adamant it should have stood and said: “I’d have loved to have seen what would have happened in the final 10 minutes if it wasn’t for a very strange decision from the linesman. Apparently it was for offside but the ball through to LJ came off the St Johnstone defender.
“It’s been a very challenging month. That’s the fourth Thursday in a row we’ve had to play.
“I’m not getting the violin out but I just feel that the lower league clubs have been really shafted here in terms of the demands placed upon us.
“I’m going on a right rant here because it’s bugged me for the last month.”
Both bosses revamped their line-ups,
with Davidson giving back-up keeper Elliott Parish a rare outing and a home debut to on- loan Millwall defender James Brown.
Opposite number Lennon rested star striker David Goodwillie and handed the gloves to Slovakian youngster Vjas, with No1 David Mitchell injured and David Wilson cup-tied.
Saints burst from the traps and Melamed poked a low O’Halloran cross over the line from three yards in the sixth minute.
The Premiership side looked as if they going for the kill, as Melamed, Stevie May, David Wotherspoon and Jamie McCart all tried their luck before the second goal arrived in the 21st minute.
Clyde were caught cold on the counter when May burst down the left before releasing O’Halloran to exploit his pace and slide a cool finish under the advancing keeper.
The gulf in class was obvious but the Bully Wee dug-in and on either side of the interval former Saints youngster Marky Munro and Mark Lamont were perfectly placed to boot net bound efforts from McCart and Melamed to safety.
Perth midfielder Wotherspoon’s freekicks were a constant threat and twice he almost curled efforts into the net as attackers and defenders failed to connect.
Melamed was denied by the crossbar and Vjas conjured up a series of stops to frustrate Saints.
Jamieson thought he had given Clyde a lifeline in the closing stages but an offside f lag halted the Clyde sub’s celebrations and Saints marched on.