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Mark Reynolds netting his first goal for the club was one of the main highlights as we showed real character to win our cinch League One clash against the Bully Wee after being reduced to 10 men with just under an hour to go.

That was because Harry Milne was controversially red-carded after clearly chesting a net-bound Barry Cuddihy shot off the line in the 34th minute.

We were already a goal ahead at that point, thanks to skipper Mitch Megginson claiming his 20th of the campaign.

The woodwork had already rescued Clyde twice, so they must have thought all their Christmases had come at once when referee Craig Napier awarded their spot-kick, despite the fact video evidence clearly shows Milne had actually made a brilliant clearance off the line.

Ally Love scored from the spot to make it 1-1, but that only inspired our 10 men to dig deep and, despite being down in numbers, they dominated the game from then on.

Fraser Fyvie put us back into the lead, just before the interval, with defender Reynolds doing his bit not long after the restart.

Leighton McIntosh came off the bench to make it 4-1 to extend our unbeaten run in the league to 19 games – and clinch at least a place in the promotion play-offs with seven still to play.

We looked as if we meant business from the off and rattled the Clyde woodwork twice inside the opening 14 minutes.

The first came when Connor Scully – voted man-of-the-match by sponsors Load Monitoring Systems – ran on to a brilliant through pass from Rory McAllister.

The move was started with Milne cheekily nutmegging an opponent in the left-back position before playing the ball up to the striker.

Scully managed to squeeze the ball past advancing Clyde keeper Gary Maley, but then saw his effort from around 15-yards hit the goalie’s left post, with Blair Yule firing the rebound wide.

Clyde got lucky again when Blair Yule’s low shot from 10-yards rebounded to safety off the other post.

Scully then crossed for McAllister to direct a header inches wide as we maintained the pressure.

Clyde broke forward in the 22nd minute for Love to hit a shot across the face of our goal and wide.

Milne followed that with a powerful 25-yard effort that deflected off a defender and just cleared the Clyde crossbar.

Stuart McKenzie made a brilliant save to stop Clyde pinching the lead in the 27th minute.

Love’s 22-yard free-kick hit our defensive wall, but his effort from the rebound was going in until McKenzie dived to touch the ball on to his left post and behind for a corner.

The value of that save was highlighted when we took the lead two minutes later.

It came after some more excellent work by Scully, whose quality pass through to McAllister ended with the striker blasting a 16-yard shot off the crossbar.

There was no escape for Clyde this time though, because MEGGINSON latched on to the rebound and battered it into the empty net.

Clyde were gifted a lifeline back into the match when referee Napier awarded their penalty, and incorrectly sent-off Milne, when he judged the left-back had handled Cuddihy’s shot on the line.

LOVE made no mistake from the spot to make it 1-1.

The sense of injustice seemed to make our lads even more determined and we were back in the lead in the 44th, with Scully again the architect.

He made a brilliant, lung bursting run down the left and when his cross from the byline deflected back out off a Clyde defender FYVIE pounced to lash the ball home from 16-yards.

REYNOLDS made sure of the points when he scored his first Cove Rangers goal in the 50th minute.

Fyvie’s corner from the left fell to Morgyn Neill and when his shot was blocked Reynolds latched on to the ball and rifled it into the net from the edge of the Clyde box.

McKenzie made another decent diving save just after the hour, from a shot by Aaron Splaine, but otherwise our 10-men repelled whatever Clyde threw at them with ease.

The icing on the cake was our fourth goal, in the 69th minute.

MCINTOSH picked up the ball inside his own half and played it up to McAllister.

His return pass was top drawer and allowed McIntosh to race clear of the Clyde defence.

The striker appeared to run out of steam when he reached the advancing Maley, but managed to squeeze a 16-yard shot past him and the ball rolled on into the net.

Fyvie scraped the top of the Clyde crossbar soon afterwards, but we had already done what was needed to earn all three points.

COVE RANGERS: McKenzie, Neill, Milne, Scully, Yule (McIntosh 52), Megginson (Adeyemo 75), McAllister (Leitch 75), Vigurs, Fyvie, Logan (Masson 81), Reynolds.

Subs: Gourlay, Fotheringham.

CLYDE: Maley, Rumsby, Cuddihy, Elsdon (Jones 52), Livingstone, Gomis (Nicoll 77), McAllister, Splaine, Love, Mortimer (Docherty 52), Tade (Andrew 75).

Subs: Cassidy.

Referee: Craig Napier.

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