Clydebank manager Gordon Moffat has called on match officials to give his players more protection as his side strolled into the third round of the West of Scotland Cup on Saturday.

Bankies blew Whitletts Victoria away at New Voluntary Park with five goals in the opening 30-minutes sending them on their way to a 7-0 victory and maintaining their unbeaten start to the campaign.

A brace from Keir Samson alongside Ciaran Mulcahy, Lee Gallacher and Dean Cairns efforts had the tie over at the break with Liam McGonigle and Nicky Little adding to the tally in the second-half.

The only blip of the afternoon was a red card to Bankies midfielder Nicky Low who was sent off in the 40th minute for a late challenge.

The visitors were only a man down for a few minutes as the hosts Sean Ewart was dismissed shortly after, and Moff admits he can see why Low was frustrated with the treatment he was getting from the opposition.

Speaking post-match, he said: “You need to give credit to our boys because we were magnificent in the first-half and blew them away inside half an hour with some really good football.

“Getting guys reintroduced back into the group was important and there was a good spread of goals around the team. It couldn’t have gone any better for us really other than the red card.

“We’ve got some really talented players at this level now, and I’m not just talking about our team, but across the division and you could see the way it was going on Saturday. There was nothing overly malicious from Whitletts, but they were leaving a wee bit on Nicky every time.

“That doesn’t excuse Nicky’s tackle but I can understand it, I’m getting a bit sick of watching it so I can understand why he reacted the way he did. I’m really disappointed with some of the officiating at times.

“The officials need to give us a bit more help because we’ve seen it a few times this season with the tackles on Nicky. Hopefully they will start to get a hold of it a wee bit more.

“I said to the referee at half-time that there were no complaints with the red card decision itself but in the lead-up to it, one of their central midfielders should have been booked with three or four fouls on the same player which would have deescalated things.

“Even when we had the wee spell with 10 v 11 we were still the dominant team on the ball and in the second-half we played a 4-3-2 with two strikers up the pitch and after that we tried a 3-4-2 with a bit more width so it was useful to try things in that situation.”

Bankies head back into league action this weekend with a top of the table clash as they travel to Largs Thistle.

The Theesel will be looking to cut the gap on Clydebank to just two points with victory, and Moff admits it’s time that Largs got the respect that they deserve.

He explained: “I’ve heard people say that Largs can surprise teams on their day but I think we need to get away from that now – Largs are one of the best teams in the league and have been for a couple of seasons now.

“It’s going to be a really tough game but we’ve got a good record down there and we’re in good form ourselves.

“We’ve went to tough away grounds in the league this season and came away with good wins against Gartcairn, Johnstone Burgh and St Cadoc’s. We’re not going down there with any fear and will take the game to them but at the same time we’ll give them full respect.”

Kick-off at Barrfields on Saturday is at 2pm.