This weekend The Buffs welcome Vale of Clyde FC to Buffs Park for The Buffs’ 17th match of the WOSFL season. The points were evenly shared when the sides drew 1-1 earlier in the season when The Buffs made the journey to East Glasgow.
Newly promoted, Vale of Clyde currently find themselves in a relegation battle with the club having picked up 18 points from their first 18 games, leaving them just a point above the drop zone with both Rob Roy and Irvine Meadow, who sit below Vale of Clyde in the table, holding 3 games in hand on “The Tin Pail”. Wins have been hard to come by this season for Vale of Clyde with their only victories coming against Ashfield, Blantyre and a very impressive 3-1 win against, title challengers, St Rochs which came just 2 weeks ago. Despite their struggling league position, The Tin Pail have only lost 3 out of their last 10 league matches but at the same time have only won 2 with 5 draws preventing John Hughes’ side from climbing up the table. Hughes’ side actually have the most league draws out of anyone across all 4 of the WOSFL Divisions with the club so far not really being able to get themselves over the line in league matches, conceding several late goals this season. Striker, Paul Donaghy has struggled to emulate his form from the previous 2 seasons, which seen him score 23 in both, leading to him only netting 5 times this season alongside fellow attacker, Lewis Taylor who has also scored 5 league goals in the campaign. Ex Buffs goalkeeper, Craig Gordon will be fairly pleased with how he and his defence have done so far this season, conceding only 27 goals which is one of the lower numbers in the division.
The Buffs are now on a pretty outstanding 10 match unbeaten run in the league with a very impressive 3-2 victory against fellow promotion challengers Rutherglen Glencairn in their most recent game. Bryan Boylan and Jack McMahon have formed a great partnership in recent months which has undoubtably been one of the biggest contributions to The Buffs current form. The duo have scored 8 goals between them in the last 5 games along with numerous assists. The Buffs could rise to top of the table with a positive result today but could also fall to as low as 6th if things weren’t to go to plan for Kevin Kelly’s side. It’s going to be a very important match for both sides as The Buffs look to continue their rise through the table whilst every point matters for Vale of Clyde as they look to boost their hopes of survival in the WOSFL First Division.
