St Johnstone cruised into the Scottish Cup quarter-finals on the back of an emphatic and professional display against their lower league opponents.
This was Clyde’s 10th game in 22 days and it showed.
The League One part-timers were out-played for the vast majority of the tie, understandably so, and could have been on the wrong end of a big scoreline had Saints taken even half of the chances they created.
The hosts were 1-0 up after just six minutes when Michael O’Halloran drilled a low and hard ball across the six-yard box that presented Guy Melamed with his easiest goal yet for Saints.
The Israeli striker should have returned the favour when O’Halloran was free on the overlap but he chose to shoot from 18 yards and skied his effort over the bar.
O’Halloran got his goal midway through the first half, though, when Stevie May guided a perfectly weighted pass into him so he didn’t have to break stride. The low finish past Clyde keeper Matej Vajs was a composed one.
It was one-way traffic throughout the opening period.
Scott Tanser came close to scoring with a back post header and Jamie McCart even closer when he had a shot cleared off the line by Marky Munro.
It was a similar story of attack v defence after the break and Liam Craig forced a good save out of Vajs after the Clyde backline opened up invitingly for him.
We had to wait until the 60th minute for the first corner for the visitors but Elliott Parish, in for Zander Clark, wasn’t tested from it.
Craig was trying his luck from distance again on 66 minutes – and Vajs was denying him again.
Then seconds later Melamed saw a header come back off the crossbar from a David Wotherspoon corner.
Clyde did have the ball in the Saints net with just over 10 minutes left but Lewis Jamieson was flagged offside before he took the ball round Parish and side-footed home.
Substitute Glenn Middleton got himself into a couple of good crossing positions on the byeline as the end of the game approached but he couldn’t pick a team-mate out on either occasion.
Two-nil it finished and the real hard work will now begin, with Saints’ last-eight task being a daunting trip to Glasgow to take on either Rangers or Celtic.
