With 21 minutes on the clock, Kevin James headed over from a Darren Sheridan cross. A minute later, Stevie Milne's looping header almost dropped behind Bully Wee keeper, Peter Cherrie, but ended up nestling on the top of the visitors' net.
Jason Scotland failed to beat Cherrie with a downward header with just another minute gone but the Clyde stopper blocked the ball with his feet before scrambling to grab hold of it under Scotland's challenge.
In a minute just after the half-hour mark, Saints had three more near misses. A Sheridan cross saw Milne head the ball back into the danger area but Chris Higgins beat Scotland to the ball to hit it out for a corner From the corner, Cherrie fumbled but Scotland failed to connect with his head and the ball was snapped away by the defence. Scotland immediately found himself in the clear and elected to go for power rather than accuracy and that's why the score stayed at nil-nil till half-time
To be fair Clyde could have snatched a goal from a couple of chances that came their way and they showed they were capable of creating scary moments for the Saints. With the home defence static, Stephen O'Donnell should have opened the scoring for the Bully Wee but he failed to convert a curving cross from Trialist, Gary Arbuckle, on 28 mintes.
The pattern of play repeated itself in the second period with Saints dominant but unable to take advantage of their territorial superiority. Clyde always lookied as if they had a goal in them.
Saints' nearest thing to a goal came in the 69th minute when Andy Lawrie whipped in a low shot from a Kevin James nod-on but the ball spun out of off the woodwork.
Saints came close twice as the match neared the final whistle. A heroic intervention by Paul McHale kept Peter McDonald from latching on to Scotland's cut-back on the edge of the box. Then came possibly the worst decision taken by anyone on the pitch. With the referee putting the whislte to his mouth to blow for time, Scotland fed the ball to Andy Lawrie all on his lonesome eight yards from goal. With the Clyde goalkeeper and the defence posted missing, Lawrie thought it would be a great time to pass the ball rather than shoot. The collective groan that rang out was just about the loudest sound heard at McDiarmid Park today.