Clyde fans have their say on the state of Scottish football

Action from Clydes Betfred Cup match with Annan. The format of the competition is popular with Clyde fans - as are trips to play Annan away from home.

A total of 103 Clyde fans were among those who took part in the 2017 Scottish Football Supporters Survey, the annual poll of supporters’ views on a range of topics which is led by Supporters Direct Scotland and is run in association with the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Professional Football League.

Team performance not surprisingly was the largest single factor in fans’ decision to attend Clyde matches, although only 44 per cent identified it as one of their top three reasons.

The next most important factors were fans’ relationship with the club (37.5%), the quality of football (36.3%) and ticket costs (35.2%).

A total of 76% of fans travel to Clyde home games by car and 74% to away games, while almost a third (31.82%) said they were not satisfied with transport links to Broadwood.

Just over 60% said they would be in favour of a pilot scheme to consider the reintroduction of alcohol at football matches, while almost 84% backed the introduction of a safe standing area.

On wider Scottish football issues exactly 50% of Clyde fans who answered said they were in favour of an alternative European competition with other “small and nearby” nations such as Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Denmark.

The new-style Betfred Cup got the thumbs up from Bully Wee fans with almost 65% in favour of the revamped format.

But the IRN-BRU Cup is less popular. Only 42% are in favour of the way it is organised with almost 49% against.

Annan was the most popular away trip for Clyde fans - aside from ‘don’t knows’ - with 22 per cent rating it the most enjoyable match day experience for visiting fans. Next most popular was Celtic - even though the Bully Wee haven’t played at Celtic Park recently.

On the international front over 75 per cent of fans are proud to support Scotland and almost 68 per cent believe being a Scotland fan is “part of who I am” - but only 17 per cent say Scotland games are more important than club matches.

And while almost 40 per cent of Clyde fans are “proud of Scottish football” only 12 per cent believe it offers a high-quality product.