| Arachnophilia |
| Basil strikes again, this time with thoughts on the far off lands of away games. |
| As every QP fan should know, the most fun part of supporting the club is getting to travel to lots of exciting places (and to Methil of course) to cheer the team on. It has been said that the atmosphere at Hampden is dead, but away games for us are usually just the opposite. Some away games have, in the past, been better than others, and here are a few of my memories of good, bad, and ugly away games that I have been to................. Well, foremost on everyone's mind has to be that brilliant 2-1 win up in Inverness on the 2nd of September this year. It was such a long way to go, especially with the prospect (well, it did seem a very slim chance before the game) of extra time and penalties, but I am proud to say I was one of those few who were able to go, and it was great for us to get the much deserved win. Before I get carried away, I'll stick in a memory of a game that can only be described as ugly - the final day of season 2001-02 away at Dumbarton. Dumbarton were going for promotion, and had made the game all ticket, and what is more there had been a sell out (you have to wonder where all those Dumbarton fans had been, or where they disappeared to). Fortunately seats on Dumbarton Rock was not sold out, and I watched the game from up there. All the drama of the last game of the season, three penalties, but unfortunately only 2 were scored - Jonny Whelan having a last minute penalty saved, a penalty which had it been scored would have lifted us off the bottom of the league. A sad day, and to my mind at least, an ugly way to end the season. This game had been preceded by another 'good' game - Elgin away. The game looked to be heading for 0-0 - a result which would have confirmed our 'bottom of the league' status for the season - despite all our efforts, and despite Mr Frickleton's best efforts to hand the game to Elgin. However, just as all seemed lost, up popped Jonny Whelan with a 25 yard rocket into the top corner - a great goal, and a great result to keep our spirits high and our hopes alive. I will perhaps make a brief mention of one or two more bad and ugly games. Perhaps the trip to Elgin near the end of the 2002-03 season might be called 'ugly' - a 0-0 draw with Stevie Fallon being sent off, followed by an eight hour return journey via Fort William. At least, though, you can laugh about that one now! This was not the case with our trip to Brechin in March 2002 - 5-0 down before half an hour had been played. I'll say no more on that, except that at least that was by the eventual run-away Champions of the division. Now, in season '99-2000 I went to only 6 away games (two at Rovers, two at Dumbarton, East Stirling and Cowdenbeath), but there are two of these in particular which stick in my mind. The promotion win at Firs Park was a close game - a 1-0 win, with the original 'big man' Mark Gallagher the goal scorer. The Championship win at Central Park was something else again. We needed a draw, so we a went goal down twice just to liven things up. In the end though, the result was (as everyone knew it would be) a win for Queen's Park (the score: 3-2), and the Division Three Trophy went (as everyone knew it should do) to Hampden. There have been other good away wins, there have been other forgetable away games - I can't go through them all. I'm sure though that our future away games will provide just as much excitement and interest. Remember, we have our first trip back to Cowdenbeath coming up next - I'll see you all there! |