Elgin have work to do in their quest to reach the final of the League 1 play-offs after conceding a two-goal advantage at Broadwood.
Goals before half time from John Gemmell and Scott Linton had Clyde in control, but Kyle MacLeod’s flashing header just after the break gave the Moray men a route back into the game only for Mark McLaughlin to put the hosts firmly back in the driving seat.
Nerves were evident early on as play was scrappy with a series of hurried, misplaced passes and niggling fouls.
The hosts were missing manager Barry Ferguson as he is in Switzerland undertaking a Uefa Pro License and the Bully Wee manager would have been concerned with the slackness which allowed Marc McKenzie to tee-up Archie McPhee but the Elgin man’s shot from the edge of the box was blocked.
Dylan Easton’s trickery in midfield ensured Elgin gave as good as they got in the opening exchanges but his promptings were unable to get the better of McLaughlin and Chris Smith, who were proving to be a formidable barrier at the heart of the home defence.
Elgin forced their first corner on 17 minutes but it almost created a goal for Clyde as Jordan Kirkpatrick led a breakaway only to shoot wide after he had burst clear in the box.
The Borough Briggs men did fall behind two minutes later in controversial circumstances when a McLaughlin header came back off the bar and fell at the feet of John Gemmell.
The attacker looked offside a yard from goal but there was no flag, and a combination of Gemmell and Elgin goalkeeper Mark Hurst appeared to force the ball over the line.
With their tails up Clyde went in search of a second and Gemmell was only a foot away with a smart shot after a nice turn.
Elgin fell further behind four minutes from the break when Scott Linton crashed home a fierce shot from 20 yards, but the visitors were transformed on the restart.
Elgin got themselves back into the game four minutes after the break with a terrific goal that was created down the right wing by Easton whose cross picked out Kyle MacLeod to nod home from six yards.
MacLeod should have equalised eight minutes later, but this time his header was too close to home goalkeeper John Gibson who gathered with ease.
As Elgin turned up the heat for an equaliser Easton was denied at close range by Gibson before MacLeod just failed to force the rebound through a sea of bodies.
The visitors did, however, get a reminder on the hour of their need to stay vigilant at the other end when David Gormley got in behind their defence, but Hurst was equal to his lob.
Clyde reopened a two-goal advantage midway through the half in a simple fashion when Linton’s long throw in from the right was nodded in by McLaughlin.
Substitute Fraser McLaren blew a chance to reduce the deficit when he sent a shot wide from a good position while fellow replacement Craig Gunn was unable to convert when clean through late on.