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Clyde in freefall
IT was a bad day all round at Broadwood on Saturday. Clyde won but were relegated, while Dundee – whose First Division championship hopes died some time ago – were downright dreadful.
Even before John Brown’s players reached the dressing room, word filtered through from Firhill that Airdrie had netted a late winner, enough to send Clyde into the Second Division next season.
An Andrew Shinnie own goal eight minutes after the half-time break and an excellent angled shot from Willie McLaren, above, in 77 minutes gave the home side the points, but they had nothing to celebrate at full-time.
Clyde travel to Dunfermline this coming weekend, but where is this club really going now?
Down, certainly, but what’s really to become of a club who were strapped for cash long before the credit crunch and who only recently were almost evicted from their stadium?
They owe owners North Lanarkshire Council a substantial sum in rent arrears and are paying back about six grand a month – money they can ill-afford.
How can they survive, especially now they’ve dropped down a peg? No doubt some of their small group of fans will be asking the same question.
It’s almost certain they’ll have to go part-time, but another puzzler is, what’s to become of Brown?
He’s not the most popular bloke at Broadwood these days, as a couple of puerile loudmouths made clear after most of the grown-ups had gone home.
The buck always stops with the boss, and when a team goes down, fingers are automatically pointed at him. But Bomber is more than capable of getting the club back on track – on the park at any rate.
The afternoon was all about poor old Clyde and on this occasion – especially after the break – they played with pride and commitment, and thoroughly deserved what turned out to be a hollow victory.
When the deed was done, McLaren, one of their more competent players, said: “There’s a miserable atmosphere in our dressing room right now. This is a bad day for Clyde.
“We did too little too late, but we’ve got to get on with things now. There’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves.”