Musselburgh Athletic 1

Clyde 3

Scorers: Musselburgh Athletic – Todd (83) and Renton (120); Clyde - Young (75), Rennie (94) and Leslie (114)

 

EXTRA time strikes from Clyde’s Martin Rennie and Kian Leslie broke Musselburgh Athletic hearts.

The county side were looking to join Dunbar United and Tranent in the third round of the Scottish Cup for the first time.

In front of the BBC Scotland cameras, Liam Burns and his team were up against managerless Clyde.

The Bully Wee had only won one of their 15 games coming into the tie and it was a tight and tense first half with neither goalkeeper called into action in the opening half hour.

There was plenty of effort and endeavour from both sides but the two teams appeared to be cancelling each other out.

Craig Stevenson had the first real effort on goal with just nine minutes on the clock.

His attempted cross from the right was blocked and when the ball came back to the former Tranent full back he flashed a shot across the box and wide of Jack Leighfield’s goal.

East Lothian Courier: Musselburgh Athletic (blue) saw their Scottish Cup dream ended by ClydeMusselburgh Athletic (blue) saw their Scottish Cup dream ended by Clyde (Image: Alan Wilson)

Connor Young fired off target at the other end but Musselburgh were starting to turn up the heat on their League Two opposition.

The hosts enjoyed a series of corner and one of those deliveries was just over the head of the prolific Nathan Evans.

Finally, with fully 40 minutes on the clock, Clyde recorded the first shot on target.

Uncertainty in the home defence saw Daniel Laing, a hero in the previous round against Gretna 2008, come out of his goal but he had to scurry back as Leslie tried from distance.

Laing tipped the ball over the bar and then confidently gathered the resultant corner.

 

 

Club president Kevin Liston was joined by former manager Billy Brown, who was also involved with both Hearts and Hibs, to give their thoughts on the contest during the half time interval.

Second half

Clyde had an opportunity early in the second half through the on loan Ji Stevenson.

He did well down the left and blasted a fierce shot across goal and wide of the target.

Then, with more than an hour played, Musselburgh came within a whisker of finding the breakthrough.

The Clyde defence backed off from the attacking Jordan Smith and his shot from 25 yards clipped the right post with Leighfield seemingly confident it was going wide.

Finally, the deadlock was broken on 75 minutes.

Man of the match Leslie played the ball into Young and he squeezed a first time shot under the body of Laing to put the Bully Wee in front.

The goal meant Musselburgh had 15 minutes to try to find a leveller and keep their Scottish Cup hopes alive.

Jackson Barker was thrown on for Craig Stevenson as the hosts attempted to put pressure on their opponents.

 

 

Finally, with seven minutes left, the home side got the leveller that their efforts had deserved.

Jamie Todd beat Leighfield to Declan O’Kane’s free-kick into the box and nodded the ball into the empty net.

Extra time

However, Clyde got their noses in front for a second time just four minutes into extra time.

Rennie collected Leslie’s pass into the box and, despite appeals for offside from the home defenders, he swept beyond Laing.

The goalkeeper did exceptionally well to keep his side in the tie before half time.

Leslie almost got his name on the scoresheet when his shot from outside the box took a sizeable deflection but the Musselburgh number one adjusted in time to keep the ball out.

Finally, Clyde put the game to bed with just over five minutes remaining.

Leslie raced onto a long ball and forced a shot under the advancing Laing before tucking home the loose ball from just a couple of yards out.

 

 

Musselburgh pulled a goal back with just seconds remaining when Kris Renton tapped home after Leighfield failed to hold on to a header but it was too late.

Musselburgh Athletic: Laing, C Stevenson (Barker 78), Wilson, O’Kane, Evans, Anderson, Renton, Khan (Woods 105), Smith (Knox 105), Todd, O’Connor.

Not used: Hope, Myles, Black, Weekes and Bain.

Clyde: Leighfield, Lyon (Gunn 116), Grant, Dunachie, Sula (Carswell 71), Whyte (Hynes 87), Forbes (Scullion 71), J Stevenson (Craig 102), Leslie, Young, Rennie (Malcolm 116).

Not used: McCulloch, Cameron and Parry.

Referee: Ross Hardie

HT: 0-0