Clydebank fight back for controversial Cumnock draw

Bankies trailed at the break when Jamie Wilson found the net with an acrobatic effort from the edge of the box only for Ciaran Mulcahy to equalise for the visitors midway through the second half.

Both sides could have won it in the closing stages in a frantic end to the game as the hosts were reduced to nine men, Bankies ‘keeper Jamie Donnelly kept out a penalty and Callum Graham was unfortunate to see an effort ruled out for offside.

Moff wants his troops to stick to what they know when they find themselves up against it but believes avoiding defeat even when not at their best is a good trait to have.

Moff was happy at his players fightback in the second half (Image: Newsquest)

Speaking to the Clydebank Post, he said: “There was a lot of bizarre stuff going on throughout Saturday with everyone having their say and both clubs will probably feel aggrieved with certain decisions in the game.

“I spoke about the referee on Saturday when it’s still quite raw but on reflection us as a club and as a team need to put that to the side and look at what we could have done better in the game.

“We can’t influence refereeing decisions, but we can influence our own performance and how we go about it.

“At half-time we spoke about sticking to our game plan and our beliefs and from the first minute of the second-half we were immediately passing it through the lines and looked a lot better.

One of many controversial moments as Cumnock are reduced to nine men (Image: Newsquest)

“We look like a really good side when we get the ball down and move it with pace but when we get caught up in a game or a battle where we’re doing what isn’t natural to us it doesn’t go well for us so we need to emphasise that in training this week.

“We did have that lay-off with no fixtures for a few weeks so last week you could probably say that was the reason for the performance but we need to get away from that now. We’re back up and running and there’s no excuse for rustiness.

“We don’t lose a lot of games so it’s a good sign and we need a bit of prescriptive this week but we know we’ll need to improve for Pollok.

“The boys were a bit low on the way back having dropped a couple of points but on reflection, we have played 18 games and lost two so there’s obviously a lot that we are doing right and one or two of the draws we need to be turning into three points.”

The Holm Park outfit now heads into a big couple of weeks with fixtures against fellow title challengers Pollok and Beith coming up.

The Bankies face Pollok and Beith next (Image: Newsquest)

Moff knows that no trophies will be handed out in the next fortnight but has challenged his side to make sure they are still in the hunt for silverware after this period.

He said: “There’s some huge fixtures coming up and there will be points dropped all over the place by teams in the top half of the table but we can only control our ability to go and win points.

“We’ve got 12 games left and 36 points to play for so we’re into the period where you break each spell into segments and set targets.

“I try and simplify to the players that every game is just one game and that’s our focus at that time.

“There are some tough games coming up for us but there is for everyone else as well.

“No one is going to win anything in January or February but we need to make sure that we’re still in contention after this period.”