Livingston cup clash halted due to fog for second time

Dec 10 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

A CUMBERNAULD fog as thick and dark as Dracula's cloak took a detour into Broadwood on Monday night and wrapped its misty fingers around Livingston’s Scottish Cup clash with Clyde — for the second time in a week writes Eric Mackinnon.

A thick blanket of fog put paid to Livi’s third round clash and, for the second time, the game was abandoned while the Lions were leading.

The two sides were scheduled to meet last night (Wednesday) to finally settle this Scottish Cup battle and hand the victors a fourth round home tie against Dundee.

David Winters, who was denied a goal twice by the woodwork at the weekend, hit the frame of the goal again after just three minutes.

The next chance fell to the same player after keeper Roddy McKenzie launched a superb long clearance all the way through to goal.

Callum Reidford raced off his line and made a great save. The loose ball fell to Robbie Winters who fired it low towards goal but Reidford popped up brilliantly and made another save.

Halliday was the next to be denied by the ex-Gers youth keeper when his ferocious near post drive was parried away. But it was only a matter of time and Livingston did take the lead on nine minutes when Robbie Winters found space at the heart of the Clyde box and nodded a Kyle Jacobs cross into the bottom corner.

It was a superb start for the Lions with the younger of the Jacobs boys showing why he had been given the nod ahead of Johnny Brown at right-back with a superb delivery from wide.

Clyde were camped in their own half and David Winters should have doubled the visitors advantage just 60 seconds after the opener.

Winters was clean through on goal again and tried to flick it over Reidford but the Bully Wee No1 flicked an arm out and deflected the ball over.

Although struggling to find the net David Winters was involved in all of Livi’s offensive moves.

He latched on to an arced pass from his brother Robbie to again hare in on goal, only to be denied just as he pulled back his foot to strike.

David Sinclair was the next to test the busy Reidford with a pot-shot from 20 yards while Chris Malone thought he had grabbed his first ever senior goal with a swivel and drive from a corner which ricocheted off several bodies on the line and whizzed wide for a corner.

A second goal was in the offing and it duly arrived on 26 minutes when siblings Kyle and Keaghan Jacobs combined on the right to create space before Keaghan fed Robbie Winters on the edge of the box.

The ex-Scotland international faked to shoot, drawing a sliding challenge from Lee Graham and Winters steadied himself before curling into the top corner from the edge of the box.

The Lions looked to be well in control but on 34 minutes they were pegged back when Clyde netted with their first effort on target after Jordan White headed past McKenzie.

Worryingly for Livingston, a thick fog began to descend, leaving boss Gary Bollan praying his side wouldn't see a game in which they were leading abandoned for the second time.

However the break saw the fog thicken with immense speed which left referee Matt Northcroft extending half-time to half an hour.

It was a surprise when the ref restarted the match, with the ball and almost all 22 players disappeared from sight when they crossed the middle of the park.

But as suddenly as the fog came in it began to lift, and although visibility was far from perfect, it was much improved when Northcroft signalled for the game to be abandoned.