SAY
what you like about league play-offs, they've certainly delivered
as far as the Third Division race is concerned. Gulliver is glad to report that QP are among the seven, and despite some indifferent results around the turn of the year, we're in decent shape for a tilt at the top four. No matter what happens over the next couple of weeks, when we face some real six-pointers, we'll still be in that race. But if we harbour ambitions of the title we've got to start doing some damage to the teams around us. Last time out at Ochilview, we hammered Stenny for something like 88 of the 90 minutes. Unfortunately, despite the domination, we only managed one goal. The home side, on the other hand, grabbed two in their one good spell of the match, one of them a freak own goal - but it was enough to give them all three points. We couldn't afford another slip-up like that today. Talking of slips, and damage, our last visit saw Steve Reilly cop a nasty injury on the artificial surface, and the boss decided not to risk Frankie Carroll today in case he suffered a similar fate. Now this is purely Gulliver's opinion, and not necessarily QP policy, but surely we shouldn't have to take the risk of a plastic surface causing injury into account when making a team selection? I hate Astroturf, and while there was no denying it looked good at kickoff, and equally admitting the financial bonuses for a club of installing such a surface, as far as this Old Fogey is concerned, grass is for football; Astroturf is for hockey and other silly games. Anyway, enough of the sermon, let's get to the action. There was a bumper QP contingent in the Stenny crowd, swollen by the ranks of our German pals from Wattenscheid They sampled Glasgow culture last night, tried the delights of the Warriors' club this afternoon - and then headed to HQ for a games night at Lesser. A Queen's victory would boost morale no end, and despite the doubts, the boss stuck very much with the squad that went nap against Montrose last week. The only change was on the bench, where Whelan replaced Carroll. Queen's started as if they knew the importance of not losing the game, and Stenny had the best of the early pressure, without really threatening to score. The Spiders gradually settled and should have taken the lead after nine minutes. Mark Ferry sent David Weatherston away, and he produced a gloirious cross for Stuart Kettlewell. From just under the bar, however, Ketts headed wide. Was it going to be one of those days? It looked as if we might pay the price when the home side went close twice within a couple of minutes just after the quarter-hour. First Sinclair dummied a long punt and McBride should have done better. And within seconds, another hoof saw Thomson in the clear, but he shot too close to Crawford. Halfway through the half, Queen's had the ball in the net, but after a loud appeal from keeper Willie McCulloch, who seemed intent on playing a role as the fourth official, Referee Norris chalked off the goal and booked Paul Ronald for alleged use of the elbow. Gulliver was actually closer to the incident than the referee, and didn't see any foul, but then again, I would never criticise a referee. Weatherston then broke clear. only to be denied by McCulloch, before the speedy Spiders striker smacked the ball against the post after a corner. He looked yards offside at the time, but the flag never went up. It was a classic game of end-to-end football at this stage, and the home side had a glorious chance to score when we gifted them two free headers from a corner. Thankfully, neither hit the target. Still the goalmouth action continued, with Trouten next to be denied when one-on-one with the Stenny keeper. Then in the dying minutes of the half, came the best chance. Weatherston was decked by Henderson and Mr Norris pointed to the spot. Up stepped Steve Canning, who chose this vital moment to hit his worst penalty of many a long game. Even Gulliver would have got to it, so there was never any chance of it beating McCulloch. Somehow it was 0-0 at the break, but it could have been anything really. The question after the interval was how we would react to the spot kick disappointment. The answer was like champions. We went at our opponents from the off and should have scored twice within the opening two minutes. Sadly, neither Ronald nor Weatherston could convert. Referee Norris was rapidly becoming the centre of attention, flashing cards with applomb in a game with scarcely a bad tackle. And he took centre stage ten minutes in when he awarded Queen's a second spot kick. Gulliver couldn't quite see what infringement was committed as Dunlop went for a cross, but the man in the middle was in no doubt, pointing to the spot. Up stepped Trouten this time, to calmly send McCulloch the wrong way. We were one up, and it was no more than we deserved. What was scarcely deserved was the yellow card for the wee man's celebration behind an empty goal. But Gulliver would never criticise any official. It soon got even better, as Queen's showed their alertness to take a quick free-kick and Ferry ghosted in to head Paton's sweet delivery firmly past the home keeper. Gulliver's main concern now was that we would sit back and invite pressure, but fair play to the Spiders, we kept going for goal, and had Weatherston managed to stay onside, instead of going a fraction early on a number of occasions, the last few minutes might not have been so sweaty. As it was, we remained in control until the final 12 minutes when Paul Paton lost out to McLaughlin and DC then tried to go for the ball with his feet. In stepped John Paul McBride, and suddenly - having seemed in total control - we were in a battle. Having swapped the injured Trouten for Dunn earlier on, Billy Stark made his second change, sending on Quinn to shore things up and removing young Paul Cairney, who continued on his learning curve. For much of the final stages, it was a case of shut your eyes as Stenny lumped long balls up the park, and Queen's defended them with everything they had. If Crawford was the villain for the goal, he was the hero right at the death with a point-blank save from Cowan after another corner. That's the trouble with the young keeper. He's a brilliant shot-stopper, but can suffer a bit with his distribution and judgment at cross balls. Still, he made the save when it counted, and deserved all the plaudits he got from his relieved defence. That was the last real scare, and after three minutes of injury time, the referee finally signalled the end of an excellent game of football, an excellent Queen's performance ... and an excellent result. The only downside was the booking count, which reached about eight. Gulliver would never criticise an official, but it's difficult to know how such a good game deserved such a bad crime count. But hey, what the heck. The three points are in the bag, the other results didn't go too badly, and Gulliver's now off to HQ to share a wee refreshment with our German friends. It would be rude not to join them in a celebration drink. 2007 might not be such a bad year after all. Teams
to follow
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
