Scottish League Division 3
	East Fife	1
	Jablonski
	Queen's Park	0
Saturday, April 7, 2007

APOLOGIES for the report being a little later than usual, but Gulliver thought it prudent to take a few deep breaths before taking out his frustration on the keyboard. And apologies also for any little typos that may appear, but it's hard to type when your seething with indignation.

You all know Gulliver would never criticise a referee, but there are times when the temptation is almost overwhelming.

Your correspondent had a wee feeling in his water that this would be the day something gave in the battle with Berwick. The head said it was more likely to be Queen's who dropped points, but when has any true believer every listened to his head? The heart hoped it would be Berwick who crumbled against lowly Elgin. As it turned out, something gave for both teams, but it was Queen's' title hopes that were virtually shredded after the 90 minutes.

We knew we'd need to be at our best to get the three points. East Fife were on a good run, with six wins out of their last seven outings. And matches at New Bayview are invariably tight affairs. The last four Fife meetings between today's opponents had ended 1-0, with both sides claiming two victories.
However, the Spiders had won eight on the bounce, equalling an all-time league record. We were unbeaten in our last 11 games, and by the time the Shire spoiled the party on Tuesday by scoring at Hampden, we had already established a new record for clean sheets, going seven games without our opponents troubling the scorer.
All talk of records and such like, however, was of secondary importance. The bald fact was that if we wanted to keep the title dream alive, we had to win today.
The boss had to get his line-up just right, but he knew well in advance he'd be without Tony Quinn and Alan Trouten.
He had Mick Dunlop available again, and after a long sweat, got the news that David Weatherston was fit enough ... but only for a spot on the bench.

The return of Mick gave the boss food for thought, but in the end he made just the one change, dropping Richard Bowers to the bench and bringing in Dunlop.

He went to left back, while Steve Canning moved into a midfield role, and midweek goal hero Robert Dunn got another start.

To say East Fife are a big team would be like saying Mount Everest is quite a big hill. But for all their size, they can be dangerous on the deck as the giant Gibson showed after just two minutes.

He was allowed to run far too far into our danger area, and Sinclair had to be sharp to finally snuff out the threat.

Ten minutes in, and Queen's had the first real sight at goal. Cairney burst to the by-line and cut the ball back beautifully to Dunn. Sadly, he scuffed his effort and the chance was lost.

Ferry then went close after 18 minutes as Queen's started to settle and then the bar denied us when a neat ball in from Paton was headed on by Dunn. Just when you thought we were getting on top, we gave O'Reilly space from a corner. Thankfully DC was alert and kept out his effort with his feet.

More than 35 minutes had raced by, and still the decisive moment hadn't arrived. Sadly, when it did, it went against Queen's - and the man in the middle had a major part.

McBride grabbed Ronald on the far touchline, and dragged him back. The Queen's striker put both hands in the air to show he was doing nothing wrong. McBride still kept hold, and Ronald finally got exasperated and lifted his hand to the Fife defender.How much contact there was, Gulliver honsetly can't say.

The outcome, however, was inevitable and Ronald duly saw red.

What will frustrate all who wear the black and white is that had the officials given the foul for the initial misdemeanour, Ronald would not have needed to raise his hands.

It was almost a carbon copy of the incident that saw Alan Trouten sent off against East Stirling at Hampden.

It's folly for the Queen's players to have reacted, but it's inexcusable for officials to allow players to grab shirts all over the place.

To add insult to injury, Stuart Kettlewell was booked in the second half for tugging back an opponent. That will put him over the penalty points limit.

Anyway, that's enough comment about the officials, and of course it's no criticism, simply an observation.

We managed to get to the break without damage, and knew a long 45 was in store.

The boss made no changes for the second period, and we tried to rely on the quick break. It almost paid off when Kettlewell was sent through, but Gibson got back to tackle him, and the penalty shout was optimistic ... and refused.

Much of the rest of the game saw Queen's chase everything that moved in an effort to keep at least a point. And for 73 minutes, it looked a possibility.

Then came the heartache; a simple corner, a simple header and we were behind.

The boss had to gamble, and did with about 12 minutes to go. He replaced Canning and Ferry with Carroll and Weatherston as we risked everything. Dunn had a couple of shots from around the edge of the box that went close; Weatherston had a couple of runs, and we had a couple of scrambles in and around the Fife box.

We never managed the vital strike, and yet another Methil encounter ended 1-0.

Being realistic, the result ends our title aspirations, despite the Berwick draw, but a play-off place is still all but secured. And a place in the play-offs keeps the promotion dream alive. We are capable of beating anybody in a two-legged encounter.

We have just been denied the chance to set history, but we can still write our names in the record books. This could be the first Queen's Park team to gain promotion without winning the league. That would do for Gulliver, because this team certainly deserves to take something for the way they have played and the enjoyment they have given us during the course of the season.

Keep the faith.