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Queen's given a harsh lesson

Motherwell 4 Queen's Park 0

Motherwell: Randolph, Hammell, Craigan, Page, Clancy, Law, Hateley, Daley, Murphy, McHugh, Forbes, Humphrey. Subs: Bradley, Halsman, Humphrey, Ojamaa, Lawleff Queen's Park: Parry, McGinn, Meggatt, Little, Brough, Anderson, Watt, McBride (Gallacher), Smith (Daly), Longworth, Murray (Burns) . Subs Not Used: Ronald, Strain. Booked: Little. Att: 4,286

It shouldn't come as any great surprise that our Scottish Cup adventure ended with us getting our backsides spanked at the home of Premier League Motherwell. After all the bookies - who wouldn't be driving about in flash motors if they got things wrong - had us at 16-1 to pull off an upset.
Obviously, if we were going to defy those odds, we needed to perform at our very best, and get off to a good start. Neither of those things happened, with the inevitably painful outcome.
At least the day began well, with a carnival-like atmosphere in the QP social club as the fans gathered. It did this old scribe's heart good to see so many youngsters sporting the special stick-on Spider tattoos. Even some of our more mature supporters entered into the spirit of the occasion.
And then there was the gratifying sight of three busy buses pulling out of the car park and heading in convoy towards Motherwell. If Gulliver was feeling less than charitable, he might ask where all these supporters disappear to between Cup ties against Premier League opposition ... but that's a question for another day.
The optimism continued with the team news - and the return of Daryll Meggatt. His inclusion, at the expense of Sean Burns, was the only change from Broadwood, so it was the "regular" starting XI who took the field to a great reception.
The opening stages of cup ties such as this very often provide reliable signposts to the eventual outcome. This one certainly did, and it wasn't the opening we planned.
Within the first 90 seconds, we had Parry to thank for denying Daley, and within the first six minutes, we were a goal down.
The goal somewhow summed up the whole afternoon. Daley looked to have been halted by a good sliding tackle from Brough, but while the defender lay on the ground, the striker reacted immediately as he got the break of the ball. He still had work to do, but accomplished the task with ease as he curled a left-foot shot past Parry and into the corner of the net.
Queen's tried to respond with McBride firing in a shot from distance. Randolph wasn't tested, however, as the midfielder failed to his the target. As the minutes ticked by, Queen's enjoyed more than an equal share of possession, but we lacked the guile to trouble our opponents.
It was 17 minutes before we produced a move to get the visiting fans off their seats. Little burst forward and crossed for Meggatt, but his header sailed over the top.
The attack seemed to breathe life into the Spiders and seconds later the players gave us a tantalising glimpse of the quality we all know they possess. Anderson, Watt and McGinn were all involved in the break which gave Longworth his first sight at goal. His effort flew just the wrong side of the post, but it was far more promising.
Page tested our nerves on 20 minutes as he fired in a dangerous cross. Thankfully it eluded everybody and went behind for a goal kick.
We went straight back up the park with the wee legs of Watt leading the charge. His cross found the head of Murray, but the effort deflected off a defender and into the arms of Randolph. There were half-hearted claims for a penalty as the ball seemed to strike
Craigan's arms on the way back to the keeper, but they were (probably correctly) waved away.
Naturally, having just enjoyed our best spell of the game, we were given a harsh lesson in finishing after 22 minutes. We'd been given a warning seconds earlier when McGinn found himself isolated against Murphy and we were lucky to see the resulting cross fly across our goal with no takers.
We didn't escape the second time. Watt will probably feel he should have cut out the crossfield ball that began the Motherwell attack, while Parry will also feel he could have done better with the shot that ended the move. The outcome was that the ball finished up in the back of our net; we were 2-0 down - and to all extents and purposes, the game was over as a contest.
Parry did what he has done all season a couple of minutes later as the home side went for the jugular. McHugh skipped past Brough with ease and bore down on our goal. Parry stood tall and blocked his effort.
One thing that has never been in doubt with this QP side is their spirit, and despite the enormity of the task they now faced, the players tried to get a foothold back in the game. McBride had two efforts from distance without finding the target, while Watt had his moments ... without managing to deliver the right final ball.
The home side were content to let us have the ball, sensing that we lacked the killer touch. Every time they moved forward, they looked menacing and could have gone three up right on the interval. Page dragged the final effort wide, and so the half-time scoreline read:
Motherwell 2, Queen's Park 0.
Queen's had also been two down at the midway point the last time they faced Premier League Opposition in the Scottish Cup. On that occasion - at Parkhead - we produced a sensational second 45 minutes, "winning" that period 1-0, despite being a man down.
Just for a while, it looked as if lightning might strike twice. Whatever Gardner Speirs and the rest of the coaching staff said in the Fir Park dressing room, it was a different QP team that emerged. They were on the field a good two minutes before their opponents, and showed their intentions right from the whistle.
Watt went close with an angled drive and then Longworth fired in a shot that was destined for the corner of the net. Sadly for Queen's, Randolph was up to the task and turned the ball behind for a corner. McBride's cross was cleared, but we kept moving forward and Smith was next to have a go. Although his shot went wide, it prompted Motherwell back into action. Forbes showed Queen's how to get a shot on target, and Parry had to use all his 6ft4in frame to tip the ball over the bar.
Despite that scare, the Spiders were actually on top as the hour approached. Anderson was pulling the strings to good effect and another dangerous through ball from the wee man had Craigan stretching to deflect it behind.
Again the corner produced no end result, but after 65 minutes we came agonisingly close to cutting the deficit. Longworth's glancing header from Watt's cross was almost perfect. Almost - but not quite - and it bounced just wide of the upright.
There were two possible outcomes to a spell of pressure such as this; we would either get the reward our play merited, or we would be given another lesson in how it should be done. To our despair it was the second outcome which materialised after 71 minutes.
It was all too simple as Motherwell finally sank our hopes. Substitute Humphrey got himself into acres of space and Murphy was on hand to fire the cross past a helpless Parry.
At three-nil, we all knew there was certainly no way back, but in an effort to get some consolation from the game, Burns and Daly were brought on to replace Smith and Murray. Their introduction had little impact, and the game seemed to be petering out when Motherwell rubbed salt in our wounds with a fourth goal right on time.
Again it was all very straightforward. For the second time, Humphrey was the provider as fellow sub Ojamaa marked his debut by hammering home his cross.
The final whistle soon brought a disappointing afternoon to a close, but despite that disappointment the players left the field to a rousing ovation from the fans.
The 4-0 scoreline was cruel, and didn't reflect the effort Queen's put into the game. It did, however, reflect the difference in class and clinical precision when opportunity knocked. Motherwell hit the target just about every time they saw goal; Queen's didn't test Randolph often enough.
What will possibly disappoint the players more than anything is that not enough of them played to their full potential. Little and Anderson did everything that could be expected of them ... and then a bit more. Every other player on the park also tried their guts out, but the occasion undoubtedly got to some of them.
Hopefully, they will use their frustration to good effect throughout the rest of the league season, starting on Saturday with victory over Elgin.
Keep the Faith ... the Cup was just a distraction anyway from the real business of winning promotion!

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