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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Euan Robertson

Clyde deserve to be bottom and need to improve standards, says David Mitchell

David Mitchell insists that Clyde deserve to be bottom of League One as he urged his teammates to improve quickly.

The Bully Wee slipped to the foot of the table after a disappointing 3-1 defeat to East Fife on Saturday.

Boss Danny Lennon admitted that his side are bottom for a reason and goalkeeper Mitchell agreed as he admitted that his teammates are missing the absent Clyde supporters.

Clyde stopper David Mitchell (Daily Record)

“The gaffer is absolutely spot on,” admitted the 30 year-old. “We are at the bottom of the table for a reason and it’s because we’ve not been good enough this season.

“We need to really up our standards to get ourselves away from the bottom of the table.

"We’ve signed lots of young lads on loan but they have to learn quickly because Clyde is a big club.

“The support demand a lot from you, and quite rightly so, but they also give you a huge amount of support.

"We are missing them massively and it’s been a big loss for us not to have them behind us, it’s very strange.

Clyde captain David Goodwillie had a strong penalty appear turned down (Stuart Vance/ReachPlc)

The Bully Wee had a strong appeal for a penalty turned down when Chris Higgins appeared to clip the heels of David Goodwillie at the start of the second half.

It was the turning point of the match as East Fife doubled their advantage minutes later and Mitchell was shocked that the referee didn’t point to the spot.

He said: “I couldn’t believe that we didn’t get a penalty and that could have changed the game completely.

“I think the referee had a couple of dodgy decisions because I thought there was a handball in the lead up to one of their goals too.”

Referee Chris Graham waived away Clyde's penalty appeal (Stuart Vance/ReachPlc)

Former Scotland internationalist Goodwillie decided to stay on his feet rather than go down but Mitchell believes that’s testament to his honest character.

“He’s just that sort of player. Every Saturday he bundles his way through players and every penalty that I’ve seen him win is a blatant one.

“People are just desperate to stop him and if he’d gone down then people would be slaughtering him for diving - he can’t win in that situation,” Mitchell added.

Goals from Fash Austin, Danny Denholm and Ryan Wallace moved East Fife level on points with fourth place Airdrie.

Goodwillie’s late consolation improved the scoreline for Clyde but they were second best for the majority of the contest.

It was the Broadwood side's first game since Boxing Day and although Mitchell was delighted to return, he felt the break showed in their performance.

Goalkeeper Mitchell couldn't keep out Denholm's header (Stuart Vance/ReachPlc)

“It was pretty obvious that we’d been away for a while. The standard and quality was missing but I thought it was a pretty even game to start.

“It felt like the first game of the season, with the sun shining, after the long lay-off but it was just good to get back.

“Overall, we just weren’t good enough although we had good spells in the game.

"In Goodwillie and Ally Love, we’ve got excellent forwards and a good back four so we shouldn’t be giving away the goals we did.

“But the goals we gave away were criminal and you can’t be doing that at any level - East Fife were ruthless ,” Mitchell, concluded.

Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video

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