The Bully Wee defeated already relegated Stirling Albion 3-0 at Broadwood but the Greenock side's victory over Partick Thistle at Firhill by the same margin meant Clyde's season has been extended by virtue of conceding just one more goal.

Midfielder Steven Masterton made a rare start on Saturday in the unfamiliar position of sweeper and admits Clyde expected three goals to have been enough.

He said: "We'd have taken 3-0 at the start as we didn't expect Morton to go to Thistle and win 3-0 but we have to put it behind us.

"We'd found a bit of form in recent weeks and hopefully we can take that into the games against Alloa. We don't know a lot about them other than our former striker Andy Ferguson being a danger but I'm sure the gaffer will have had them watched."

With Neil McGregor back from suspension tonight Masterton doesn't expect to start at sweeper but said despite an excellent performance he'd rather return to midfield.

He said: "Neil has done brilliantly for so long I don't expect that I'll stay at sweeper against Alloa and to be honest I'd rather play in midfield. We have a lot of midfielders who are all capable of playing in the game but with Jimmy Gibson going off injured against Stirling it might give me a chance to get in the team."

This was comfortably Clyde's best performance of the season and they were clearly determined to get an early goal but Dave McKay found nothing but fresh air as he tried to connect with a Billy Gibson cross and then Paul Nugent bravely blocked a Gary McSwegan shot.

Another Billy Gibson cross should have led to the opener for McSwegan but six yards out he scuffed his shot and Scott Christie saved with his legs.

Stirling hadn't been in the game but almost provided a sucker punch as Steven Bell made a powerful run into the box but was prevented from pulling the trigger by an excellent tackle from captain-for-the-day Chris Higgins.

Pat Clarke volleyed wide and a Jorg Albertz drive hit a bobble which took it wide and were dealt a blow of 36 minutes as Jimmy Gibson limped off to be replaced by Marvyn Wilson.

However, two minutes from half time Clyde finally took the lead.
Christie slid out to collect a through ball by McKay but as he did so realised he was going to come out of his box so let go of the ball and McSwegan was on hand to calmly roll the ball into the empty net.

At half time Clyde boss John Brown made a further change as Michael McGowan replaced Albertz and made an instant impact.

Less than 60 seconds into the second half McGowan header released Ruari MacLennan on the right wing and his cross to the back post was smashed home by Clarke.

Going for the jugular McSwegan was immediately replaced by the more dynamic Gary Arbuckle although it was Stirling who finally got a bit of possession with ex-Clyde midfielder Chris Aitken twice coming close and David McKenna had the ball in the net but was ruled offside.

Clyde then missed two glorious chances within a minute as first Clarke and then Arbuckle were one-on-one with the goalkeeper but on both occasions Christie came out on top.

McKay was booked for diving in the box but Clyde did get a penalty on 83 minutes as Clarke was tripped by Andrew Graha and he stuck away the penalty himself.

Christie pulled off two more excellent saves to deny MacLennan and Clarke and as the result from Firhill was confirmed Clyde were faced with trying to do what no first division club has managed and win the play off.

Kick off tonight is 7.45pm and the second leg is on Saturday at Broadwood for which McGregor will again be suspended.

John Brown said: "A few of the lads were down after the game but I've told them they have to forget about it.

"We got a great result against Stirling although not the one we wanted and we'll try to match that against Alloa."