Queen's get back on track
Montrose 1 Queen's Park 2
Queen's Park: McGeown, Walker, Little, Brough, Douglas, Hamilton (Martin 66), Stewart, Quinn, McBride, Daly, Murray (Watt 85). Subs Not Used: McPherson, Gallagher, Henry. |
Coming off the back of two defeats, there were a few nerves against a Montrose side who had given us a few scares in the two previous encounters this season. They had shown that their 10th place position could not be taken for granted.
And both sides entered this match having conceded five goals the previous week. The difference was that Montrose's drubbing was at the hands of silky Hibs while ours was an error-strewn defeat to Stranraer.
Changes had to be made and Gardner Speirs registered no fewer than three new signings on Friday. All new-boys featured in the squad and two, experienced goalkeeper Mark McGeown, who was last with Queen of the South, and Paul Stewart - formerly with Clyde and East Fife - , were on from the start.
They came in for the injured Peter Hamilton and Giuseppe Capuano. The third of the newboys, teenage forward Ryan Martin just released by Motherwell, was on the bench. David Murray also came in for the injured Frankie Carroll.
With two new faces starting, it would be interesting to see how Queen's would adapt but it was the home side who had the better of the early opportunities with Paul Tosh and Chris Hegarty both wasting good chances.
After that, Queen's forged their first effort with Tony Quinn's deflected header easily floating into the arms of Andy McNeil.
Gradually, Queen's asserted themselves with Chris Hamilton and David Murray creating openings on both sides. A good exchange between Hamilton and Martin McBride yielded a corner but McNeil was commanding in the box and claiming every ball with confidence.
We could not make use of these set-pieces and predictably Montrose took advantage with a rare jaunt up-field on 35 minutes. Ex-Spider John Gemmell fired in a shot which Mark McGeown could not hold and Paul Tosh was perfectly positioned to fire in the rebound.
Queen's were rattled and the confidence had been visibly drained from the side. This enabled Stephen McInally to ping in a free-kick from a wide position and McGeown had to scramble across his line to parry wide.
At half-time, Montrose were leading 1-0 and few could argue about the scoreline: the home side had taken their chance and Queen's were again left ruing wasted set-plays.
Queen's started the second-half brightly, however, and a Barry Douglas corner was headed over by Michael Daly.
Rab Walker then had to resort to less than sporting tactics to stop a Montrose attack. He earned a booking and thankfully Sean Crighton floated the free-kick over.
But then came the goal which got us back in game. A long punt forward deceived the Montrose defence, Daly nipped in to beat McNeil and David Murray was there to knock the ball into the net. Montrose claimed that Murray was offside but referee Graham Beaton ignored the appeals and Queen's were back on level terms.
Queen's tried to apply some serious pressure on the Montrose defence and Hamilton brought out the best in McNeil before Murray was unlucky to see his header cleared off the line by Crighton.
Moments later, Paul Tosh had a goal ruled out for offside which was a quiet reminder that Montrose were still dangerous in attack. For his abusive protests, the veteran was booked.
The same player then forced McGeown into action with a shot which required a firm pair of hands to stop.
On 66 minutes, new signing Ryan Martin replaced Chris Hamilton and three minutes later Queen's were ahead.
John Gemmell was booked for contesting a corner decision by referee Beaton - a corner which we then netted from. Barry Douglas swung it in and although Montrose tried to clear, Tony Quinn flicked the ball past a flailing McNeil from eight yards.
Queen's had turned it around but the game was far from over. Tosh had another goal disallowed for offside - but there wasn't much in it.
We should have had it wrapped up on 83 minutes when Paul Stewart played a lovely ball through to Daly but the big forward could only shoot straight at McNeil.
In an attempt to get an equaliser, Montrose introduced the tricky Marek Tomana, but Queen's held on for a satisfying three points.
On the basis of the second half performance, Queen's were well worth the three points. Montrose only threatened sporadically, but they were a handful in attack with Tosh, Gemmell and Stevie Nicholas all in the starting XI. However, that's nine from nine against the Links Park side this season and if we had shown that kind of form against some other sides this season, perhaps the gap between us and the top four wouldn't be quite as big.
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See you all
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SFL Div 3 |
P |
Pts |
| Livingston | 36 | 78 |
| Forfar Athletic | 36 | 63 |
| East Stirling | 36 | 61 |
| QUEEN'S PARK | 36 | 51 |
| Albion Rovers | 36 | 50 |
| Berwick Rangers | 36 | 50 |
| Stranraer | 36 | 47 |
| Annan Athletic | 36 | 43 |
| Elgin City | 36 | 34 |
| Montrose | 36 | 24 |