A hard One to take
Queen's Park 2 Stranraer 5
Queen's Park : P. Hamilton, Walker (Daly 65), Sinclair (Brough), Little, Douglas, McBride, Capuano, Quinn, Holms (Murray , C.Hamilton, Carroll. Booked: Capuano, Quinn. Goals: McBride, Daly Stranraer: David Mitchell, Glen Mitchell, Bouadji, Henderson (Wright), Sharp, Dannyl Mitchell, Nicoll, Noble, Agnew, McColm (Montgomerie), One(Moore ) Booked: Henderson, Nicoll. Goals: McColm, Agnew, One, Mitchell, Agnew. Att: 553 Ref: G Salmond |
It might be less than a year ago, but it seems like a million miles away today as we survey the wreckage of a disastrous afternoon at Hampden.
The omens weren't good before our league fixture against Stranraer as Barry Douglas and Gardner Speirs had just been named Young Player and Divisional manager of the month respectively. Traditionally, every time we pick up one of these awards, we lose the next game. Surely a double success would spell disaster? It did.
And then there was the man in the middle. We never seem to do well when George Salmond referees our game. Today was certainly no exception.
Last but not least, was the Stranraer hoodoo. We've not beaten them for years - and never looked like ending that run.
So the signs weren't good, and there was certainly a risky element to the team selection.
At this point, Gulliver would like to pay a personal tribute to Chris Hamilton, who asked to play despite losing his dad Brian to cancer on Wednesday. What the wee man felt like as the players lined up for a minute's applause before the game in memory of his dad, God only knows. However, despite the strain, and a miserable afternoon for Queen's Park, Chris never stopped trying and was one of very few players who earned pass marks.
There had also been major injury doubts before the game over Carroll and Quinn. In the end, they made the line-up, and James Brough also made the bench. Did that mean our luck had turned ... not a bit of it.
Things got off to a fairly quiet start after the moment's applause, with a lot of attention focused on Chris Hamilton.
Five minutes in we went close as a long cross to the far post was hooked back by Frankie and Tony Quinn was inches wide with an overhead kick.
Less than 60 seconds later, disaster struck. Keeper Mitchell's clearance went all the way through to McColm who fired a shot under Peter Hamilton and into the net.
We could have been level within a couple of minutes as Mitchell spilled a cross into the path of Holms. He wriggled clear and tried to chip the keeper, but his effort was not powerful enough and it remained
1-0 to the visitors.
Another few minutes and it was beginning to become clear this wouldn't be our day. Nicoll was showing studs as he challenged Sinclair - and when they made contact, it was immediately clear the afternoon was over for the Spiders' skipper. In fact, the later medical bulletin revealed that our injury-prone defender had broken a bone in his foot, and faces a spell in plaster.
Naturally, he was carried off, but to the surprise of many in the ground, no action was taken over the tackle.
James Brough came on to partner Ricky Little in the heart of the defence, but Queen's struggled to find their rhythm. We flattered to deceive on occasions, but simply couldn't cope with the enormous presence of Armand One and the physical power of the Stair Park side.
After 21 minutes we went 2-0 down when our makeshift defence got the offside trap horribly wrong and Agnew broke clear. His shot hit one post before going in off the other one.
Needless to say, we now started to produce some decent stuff, and a Hamilton cross after 27 minutes was inches away from the head of Quinn.
And our best moment came just after the half-hour mark. Walker, Hamilton and McBride combined beautifully to create space down the right. Hamilton's cross was met on the turn by Frankie, but sadly, keeper Mitchell was in exactly the right place to catch his shot.
The same couldn't be said for our unfortunate keeper just two minutes later when he failed to cut out a hanging cross and One had the easiest of tasks to nod the ball over the line and put the visitors three up.
Just when we thought we couldn't do anything right, we scored the goal of the day. Chris Hamilton found McBride who chipped the ball up, turned - and volleyed it into the net from all of 30 yards. It was an absolute gem, and sadly out of place with what we'd produced up to that point.
But could it give us the spark we needed to get back into the game?
Half-time Queen's Park 1 Stranraer 3.
Although there were no changes in personnel at the break, the early skirmishes suggested a distinct change in attitude from the Spiders.
Straight from the off we pushed forward and Tony Quinn combined well with Barry Douglas to earn us a corner which was whipped in delightfully by Martin McBride. A good old goalmouth stramash ensued, and the ball simply begged to be put out of its misery by resting in the rigging. Despite a posse of players doing their best, nobody could apply the final touch.
Ryan Holms hadn't been enjoying his best afternoon, so it was no real surprise when he was hooked after 52 minutes and replaced by David Murray. It may be no coincidence that his introduction sparked the liveliest period of the game.
It began after 54 minutes when a Douglas special diagonal ball was inches away from the inrushing Carroll.
It continued with the crowd getting distinctly restless as keeper Mitchell began taking an eternity over every clearance, despite there being more than 30 minutes still to play.
It all boiled over when Douglas was decked in yet another suspect challenge which produced no punishment from the man in the middle. Giuseppe Capuano decided to take matters into his own hands (or rather legs) and slid into a challenge which, while never going to hurt Nicoll, was never going to earn the Queen's youngster anything other than a yellow card.
Now you all know that Gulliver would never criticise any official, but like many in the ground, your scribe couldn't help but notice the irony in what happened next. Nicoll, who had escaped any sanction for the challenge that sent Sinclair to Hairmyres Hospital, was booked for talking out of turn to the referee.
Henderson was next into the book for taking out Murray before Gardner Speirs went for broke with his last throw of the dice, taking off full back Robert Walker and bringing on Michael Daly.
Stranraer also made a change after 70 minutes, bringing on former QP youngster Ray Montgomerie in place of McColm.
One change had an immediate impact - but sadly it wasn't the one we wanted to see. The ball was played out wide to the right where it was gathered by Montgomerie. He could have been offside, but the flag didn't go up - and he didn't hang about. He simply drilled the ball across goal where the onrushing Danny Mitchell rammed it home to put Stranraer 4-1 ahead.
Queen's should have hit back within five minutes when a McBride corner landed right on Daly's napper, but the striker couldn't hit the target.
He managed much better five minutes later from another corner. The build up to this one was a bit special as the ball of the day/month/season was delivered by Ricky Little into the path of Chris Hamilton. The wee man hared to the line and won a corner off Sharp. The delivery, this time from Douglas, was again planked right on the head of Daly. He didn't disappoint and the ball fairly flew into the net - sparking an almost comical scene as the Stranraer defenders and keeper Mitchell disagreed - forcibly - over who was to blame for the goal.
It gave us a glimmer of hope for a miracle recovery, but before we could achieve that, we had to keep things tight at the other end. We didn't.
With just about five minutes remaining Peter Hamilton produced a howler of a clearance which went straight to Agnew. He accepted the invitation, cut inside - and curled the ball high into the net to make it 5-2.
That was the end of the scoring, but Salmond had the last word when he booked Quinn for a tame challenge in the dying seconds.
There was also conclusive evidence that football is a cruel game. Nobody - not even the Stranraer players - would have grudged Chris Hamilton a goal now, and with almost the last kick of the ball he found himself in a bit of space just outside the box. He was closed down just as he shot but the effort still looked to be on target until it was deflected into the air ... onto the crossbar ... and behind for a corner. It was a disappointing end to a bitterly disappointing afternoon.
The pessimists among our ranks will say today spells the end of our play-off dreams. The real prophets of doom will call for heads to roll.
Dreamers, where such as Gulliver tend to dwell, will write this off as a seriously bad day at the office, and hope for better things to come next week.
And no matter which camp you sit in, just bear this in mind. All that happened today was that Queen's Park lost a football game. One of our players - and hundreds of other other unfortunate folk throughout the land - have this week lost somebody dear to them.
Keep the faith.
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See you all
|
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 |