Peterhead once again prove to be too strong for Clyde at Broadwood

Jim McInally’s side arrived in Cumbernauld boasting a record which had seen them victorious on five of their previous seven visits.

And at the end of a difficult week for the Buchan club, who announced they had been forced to make 29 members of staff redundant due to the Covid-19 crisis, they at least had something to smile about.

But it was a disappointing afternoon for Danny Lennon’s side who – an early David Goodwillie opportunity apart – rarely looked like unlocking the Peterhead rearguard.

Both Blue Toon boss McInally and Clyde defender Tom Lang had hailed the quality of the Broadwood playing surface in the build-up to the match.

However that was rendered almost irrelevant by the windy conditions which generated a game littered with mistakes as the ball became increasingly difficult to control.

With Peterhead perhaps edgy after losing their first two games, Clyde made what early running there was and Goodwillie probably should have done better than head Kristoffer Syvertsen’s fine cross straight at Josh Rae.

But as the half wore on the visitors began to impose themselves more.

The best chance of the first half fell to Scott Brown, after a fine set -up by Steven Boyd, but David Mitchell came to Clyde’s rescue with a fine stop low down to his right.

Brown then got away from Tom Lang and fizzed a low cross into the danger area which Matthew Shiels did well to clear.

The match remained goalless at the break but it didn’t take the visitors much of the second period to break the deadlock.

On 55 minutes a ball into the box was controlled by Lyall Cameron with his right before the teenager switched to his left and fire past Mitchell for his first Blue Toon goal.

The sapping conditions means the first goal was always likely to be crucial and so it proved.

Clyde huffed and puffed but, unlike the wind battering Broadwood, rarely looked like blowing anything down.

And their fate was sealed in the 70th minute when Brown capped a fine captain’s display with the second.

Hesitant Clyde defending allowed Boyd to tee up his skipper who didn’t need a second invitation to ram the ball past Mitchell into the roof of the net.

To add to Clyde’s frustration, before the game could restart Cammy Palmer, their new loan signing from Rangers, had to depart after picking up an injury only six minutes after coming on as a substitute for what proved a short-lived debut

There was no way back for Clyde after that; indeed Peterhead could have added to their tally.

Boyd had a decent chance from a Kyle Bailey cutback but fired over and Bailey put a back post header wide of the target when directing the ball back across goal might have been a more profitable option.