| CLUB NEWS |
| January 2006: 31st: Queen's sign Celtic player on loan Billy Stark has made a most intriguing signing for Queen's by bringing in 19 year-old Celtic forward Kjartan Henry Finnbogason on loan until the end of the season. Along with his fellow Icelander Theodor Elmar Bjarnason, Finnbogason signed for Celtic in 2004 after a trial period, having been the subject of interest from loads of clubs throughout Europe. The two had previously shone in their brief spell as first-teamers at KR Reykjavik in Iceland, and have gone on to perform well for the Celtic under-19 and under-21 sides. On signing them, then Celtic manager Martin O'Neill was moved to state that "they are unbelievably good already and have got everything in their lockers to succeed. In all my years of coaching those two come close to being the best prospects I've ever seen, if not the best." It's exciting just typing these words in - Queen's have brought a player to the club of enormous potential, someone who, to one of the best British managers of all time, was considered one of the best young players he had seen. Billy Stark has added to a side that's already doing very well - this signing is the signal that we won't be content merely to win a play-off place, but wish to challenge for third, second and maybe even the top spot. Kjartan is 6 ft 3in, and will give us a physical presence we have often lacked up front. 29th: East Fife 0 Queen's Park 1 - another hardy performance Queen's weren't at their best against East Fife but won their third game on the trot nonetheless, a penalty a minute from the end earning us the victory. The award, courtesy of Colin Hardie, was a dubious one, but Steven Reilly's invincibility from the spot continued with a firm strike. Earlier opportunities for Felvus, Ferry and substitute Proctor had all been narrowly missed, and Queen's were the more purposeful and attacking side on the whole, despite their passing not being near its peak. East Fife looked a labouring side, and now lie eight points adrift of us, having played two games more. Arbroath are now our main obstacle to a play-off, but their hopes could be effectively killed off if we defeat them next Saturday. The full match report is here. 22nd: Queen's Park 3 East Stirlingshire 1 Queen's moved into a commanding position in the play-off chase with an edgy victory over East Stirling. Mick Dunlop scored his first goal for the club and Kevin Proctor wrapped up the win after coming on as a substitute. The result moves Queen's, in fourth place, five points clear of East Fife, whom we play next week and have two games in hand over. In addition we are 9 points clear of Arbroath. Billy Stark has signed former Queen's goalkeeper Mark Cairns to provide cover for David Crawford. The 36 year-old was originally signed for Queen's by Kenny Brannigan in January 2003, staying at the club until the end of that season and being first choice keeper during this period. His last team was Arbroath. We may also be signing Marc McKenzie, the former Albion Rovers winger who has recently left league leaders Stenhousemuir. He played as a trialist in a friendly against Drumchapel last week and was involved in both of Queen's goals in a 2-1 victory (incidentally it was Kevin Proctor who scored both of them). 15th: Elgin City 1 Queen's Park 2 - crucial result Queen's ground out a narrow win over Elgin at Borough Briggs to move back into 4th in the Third Division, overcoming a half-time deficit to do so. Elgin's lead had materialised due to a very dubious penalty decision by referee Brown, who penalised Dunlop for a supposed shove at a free-kick. The first half had been dour but the second brought greater excitement; Queen's enjoyed most of the play during it, and in a display chockful of character, two goals from Tony Quinn won the day for us. 8th: Spartans 3 Queen's Park 2 - one of the worst Queen's Park were ejected from the Scottish Cup by a non-league club for the first time in 33 years in Edinburgh yesterday. An early goal from Alan Trouten was not enough to settle our players down and the team failed to perform to anything approaching the high standards that saw Raith Rovers beaten in the previous round. Billy Stark fielded a defensive formation from kick-off, with just David Weatherston in attack, supported from behind by Paul Harvey. Shifted from his influential central position, and not looking fully fit, Harvey's contribution was minimised. Spartans outmuscled Queen's, as some supporters had feared would happen, and all three of their goals arrived courtesy of set-pieces. Prompted by an equaliser close to the break, Spartans dominated much of the second half and raced into a 3-1 lead, tearing apart a frail Queen's defence. Weatherston did notch a goal back, and Felvus missed a sitter instead of equalising, but the defeat was deserved. Not helped by a referee whose decisions seemed to favour the home team throughout, Queen's lacked strength all over the pitch, especially in attack, and only Stuart Kettlewell could truly be said to have performed. It was, without doubt, one of the most painful days the massive Queen's Park support present has had to endure. 5th: Closed-door defeat by Rangers A strong Queen's team put in a good showing against Rangers in a friendly yesterday afternoon, going down 3-0 in the end to goals from Kris Boyd, Ross McCormack and Gavin Rae. The match was notable for the return to a hooped shirt of Steven Canning, who played for the closing 12 minutes and forced Stefan Klos into a fine save near the end. Queen's had several good opportunities to score, and had the ball in the net at one point when Felvus pulled off his chip trick, beating Klos from 20 yards. only for a flag to be raised. The Rangers side at Murray Park included Derek Carcary, playing on the wing. This game keeps Queen's ticking over ahead of our big occasion on Saturday, when we travel to Edinburgh to play Spartans in the Scottish Cup. Thanks to qpfc.com for the match details. 2nd: Queen's Park 1 Albion Rovers 1 - winning run checked Once again, Queen's failed to register four successive victories, being held to a draw by an unadventurous Albion Rovers team. For much of the game, Queen's Park's performance was close to being embarassing; illustrating once again the extremes this team can veer to and from. Rovers took the lead in the 13th minute after a bright start, Chaplain's shot bouncing beyond Crawford from just outside the box. Only after Rovers had been reduced to ten men, when Donachy was dismissed for a crude tackle on Dunlop, did Queen's properly group together, and an equaliser came 14 minutes from the end when Ferry headed home Harvey's cross. Subsequent pressure brought no reward, and so Queen's slipped back to 5th place in the league on an agonising, frustrating afternoon. 1st: Queen's Park v Albion Rovers Preview available here Yesterday's postponed fixture against Berwick has yet to be scheduled for a new date. December 2005: 30th: Berwick Rangers v. Queen's Park - 9am pitch inspection Shielfield will undergo a pitch inspection tomorrow morning to determine if this pivotal league fixture will go ahead or not. The temperature is expected to dip to around -2 degrees Celsius in Berwick-upon-Tweed overnight, guaranteeing a coating of frost. The question is whether the pitch will be able to thaw out quickly enough. The supporters' bus is set to leave Glasgow around 9.30 so by then we should know if a game will be taking place or not, preventing a pointless journey. 26th: Queen's Park 2 Stenhousemuir 0 - leaders toppled Queen's resurgence gained pace with a super win over the league leaders at Hampden, meaning that Stenhousemuir are at least within our vision at the top. Bryan Felvus nodded home after 6 minutes to give us the advantage, and a penalty kick conversion by Steven Reilly in the 64th minute (following a trip on Trouten) made the win ours. East Fife managed to beat Berwick 1-0, a result that has mixed implications for us; a win at Berwick on Saturday would pull us to within six points, with a game in hand, on a side that at one stage led us by 20 points. Are Queen's hitting form at this most crucial of times? 19th: Arbroath match off For the 4th time this year, the Queen's supporters' bus was forced to reverse and crawl frustratingly back to Glasgow without a ball being kicked. Shortly after 11am, the match was pronounced as being off due to the Gayfield pitch being frozen. Apparently though, by kick-off time the frost in that part of the world had largely thawed out and it seems the pitch would probably have coped. Quite why the pitch inspection by the referee couldn't have been arranged earlier, so as to prevent us (and the players) making an unnecessary trip, is baffling, but sums up the contempt that the authorities (and, sad to say, some clubs) have for supporters at our level. The game has not yet been rescheduled but there is surely no chance of Christmas Eve being chosen as the date. Meanwhile, our Scottish Cup tie with Spartans will kick off at 1 pm on Saturday 7th January at Spartans's City Park ground. The match will not be all ticket, but the supporters' bus will be. Tickets can be collected at the Souvenir Shop on the days of our next two home games. 15th: East Stirlingshire 0 Queen's Park 4 - back to fourth The players were still on the crest of the wave on Tuesday night and gave the worst team in the division a deserved battering. The result lifts Queen's back into 4th spot, one point ahead of East Fife and five points ahead of Arbroath, whom we meet at Gayfield on Saturday. A win there would conceivably end their challenge, as Queen's also have a game in hand. In any case Queen's hold one of the play-off positions at the moment and are well-placed to approach the Christmas / New Year period. Bryan Felvus claimed 2 goals but the first has been credited to Shire defender Oates, Reilly kept up his perfect penalty kick record and Mark Ferry scored the 4th. The result was our fourth win in succession against East Stirling, and we have now scored 10 goals against them this season. 11th: Queen's Park 2 Raith Rovers 0 - outstanding result Queen's achieved one of their best Scottish Cup victories with this tremendous win over a sorry Raith Rovers team at Hampden, earning themselves an away Third Round tie against East of Scotland League team Spartans. Queen's were superb straight from the beginning, Weatherston racing clear of Stirling to open the scoring after only 45 seconds. Raith's passing was shoddy but they did make David Crawford pull off some brilliant saves with a sustained spell of attacks early in the second half. Queen's fought titanically to keep them out, and, to avoid an agonising close to the game, Bryan Felvus made sure of a famous result with a world-class lob from the edge of the box after coming off the bench. The last week has seen the two extremes of Queen's Park; what a club. The Spartans tie will go ahead (weather permitting) on Saturday 7th January. An exact kickoff time has yet to be determined, and there is the possibility of the match being an all-ticket one depending on what capacity Spartans are permitted to use. These details will become known in due course. 4th: Queen's Park 0 Montrose 3 - appalling result Queen's collapsed to a dreadful 3-0 loss against managerless Montrose yesterday, before Hampden Park's lowest crowd since the rebuild was completed in 1999. Like last week, the goals came in the second half, but on this occasion it was the visitors who scored them without reply. Queen's had looked in command for the vast part of the first half but their failure to take a hold on the game by scoring was savagely exploited by Montrose, two of whose goals came on the counter attack and two from set-pieces. If Queen's had scored first, I'm convinced they'd have won; but to give 3 goals away to such an average side as Montrose is completely unacceptable and certain players will need to improve vastly on Saturday's efforts. Probably this is Billy Stark's worst result as Queen's manager to date, so it's ironic that within a few days he'll be forced to explain what happened to the support at a 'Meet the Manager' session. Match report. November 2005: 27th: Queen's Park 2 East Fife 0 - on our way? A 2-0 victory over East Fife at a soaking Hampden yesterday returned Queen's to the top four of the table and confirmed without doubt that we will be in the running come the end of the season. In what was a very open game both sides missed bundles of good chances but Queen's took one of theirs - Tommy Murray finishing clinically to put us ahead - and were then gifted another when a preposterous piece of judgment from Dodds in the Fife goal allowed Trouten's shot to squirm over the line. Crawford made a number of fine saves, Damiano Agostini was commanding on his return, Tommy Murray got his first goal - it was a memorable day and it's a shame there were so few there to see it. For the full report click here. Note that our away game at East Stirling is now due to be played on Tuesday 13th December at 7.30 pm. Note also that there is a Meet the Manager evening scheduled for Thursday 8th December in the Social Club at 7.45. One of the committee will be there, as well as a player, to answer any questions about the team and the club. It's always a worthwhile evening and Billy Stark is an interesting guy to listen and talk to. 21st: Shire game to be moved again The away fixture with East Stirling will now not go ahead tomorrow evening. Shire's Scottish Cup first round tie at Stenhousemuir, postponed on Saturday, is now intended for tomorrow (though must be far from sure to make it). No new date for our match has been scheduled. This means that Queen's home game with East Fife on Saturday will be our first match for 3 weeks; increasing even more the importance of what is probably our biggest game of the season to date. The Strollers were also due to be in action on Tuesday night, but because of Partick Thistle's draw with Albion Rovers in the Cup on Saturday, the replay of that will now go ahead tomorrow instead. It seems unusual that we would have a reserve game scheduled for the same time as a first team game in the first place. . 14th: Shire match: new date decided Our match with East Stirling, which was postponed on Friday night due to high winds, will now go ahead on Tuesday 22nd November at Firs Park, 7.30 pm kick-off. The supporters' bus was on the outskirts of Falkirk when the news came through that referee Alan Muir had decided the weather was too bad, and some other fans had already reached the ground before discovering there would be no game. 9th: Billy Stark agrees full-time contract According to today's press Billy Stark has agreed full-time terms with Queen's Park. As part of Stark's full-time remit he will be asked to put extra emphasis into finding young Glaswegian Asians to play for Queen's Park. Sensibly the club feel there is a large untouched pool of talent available and it would be a shrewd move if Queen's could capitalise on that - perhaps even securing some new supporters as well as players. The coach's position at Queen's had been part-time ever since the club couldn't afford to pay John McCormack full-time wages at the start of the 2002/03 season, and of course he had gone within 6 months. It's not the first time that the committee have put their faith in the club's manager at a time when results haven't been all they could have been; Kenny Brannigan was given a new contract in January 2004, but Stark certainly seems to enjoy the respect of the players to a greater degree than Brannigan ever did and there are still signs that we can reach our potential within the next couple of years. 6th: Albion Rovers 1 Queen's Park 1 - giving it all away What could have been a comfortable win for Queen's at Cliftonhill yesterday turned into a massive disappointment as Queen's gifted yet another goal away. Martin Bonnar, unable to score during his time as a Queen's player, grabbed his third against his old club in less than 3 years when scrambling home from a few yards in the 85th minute. Shambolic defending was the cause as Sinclair missed the ball and Reilly slipped to the deck; it mirrored Queen's failures to put the ball away at the other end. David Weatherston had put Queen's in front during the first half after a superb run and Queen's passed up several chances to put the game beyond Rovers as they dominated the opening exchanges of the second half. The result nonetheless put Queen's closer to East Fife, who lost 3-1 at Cowdenbeath, but the game left a bitter taste; it was a poor performance, a poor result, and Billy Stark still faces questions over his selections and tactics. Perhaps some of these will be answered at a Meet the Manager session due to take place later in the month; further details in due course. October 2005: 30th: Queen's Park 3 Elgin City 0 - back to winning ways Queen's picked themselves up from the last couple of results with a resounding victory over a desperately poor Elgin team. Queen's didn't give much of a performance and were probably fortunate to go ahead when Alan Trouten won a penalty, Reilly converting it again. But a sublime lob from Trouten shortly after made things comfortable, and Mark Ferry's precise drive sealed the win in the second half. Against a better team than Elgin we'd have had to play significantly better, but it's a very important win and moves us a little closer to East Fife, who drew with Albion Rovers. 26th: Queen's Park 0 Cowdenbeath 2 - falling further and further behind A 2-0 victory for Cowdenbeath at Hampden last night reversed Queen's win in Fife back in August and left Queen's in a distant fifth place in the Third Division. Again missing Paul Harvey, Queen's were undone by Cowden's flair in attack, assisting them with hesitant defending and poor decision-making. Queen's played reasonably during the first-half, but faded badly in the second, and some of Billy Stark's decisions on the night must be called into question. Prior to last night's game Billy Stark completed the signing of Tommy Murray, a 20 year-old midfielder. Murray has played in a number of games for the Strollers as a trialist, and scored in their 2-2 draw with Partick Thistle at Lesser last week. I believe he was involved as far back as pre-season. Tommy was with Drumchapel Amateurs last season. Our fixture with East Stirling has been moved to Friday 11 November to accomodate those fans (or players) that also wish to attend Scotland's friendly with the USA at Hampden the following day. 23rd: Stenhousemuir 1 Queen's Park 0 - late loser For the second time this season Stenhousemuir defeated Queen's with a late goal and showed the mark of true challengers by winning when not playing very well. While Queen's controlled the first half, they were utterly toothless without Paul Harvey in the midfield, with the final ball grossly disappointing on almost every occasion. We never threatened Stenhousemuir inside their penalty area and the Ochilview side were the better team during the second half. They hit the bar and forced Crawford into a fine save, but just when we looked likely to hang on, Cramb was left unmarked in the box and bulleted Mercer's cross home to send us away with our play-off hopes still very much uncertain. 17th: Scottish Cup Second Round: Queen's Park v. Raith Rovers Queen's will play Raith Rovers at Hampden in the Second Round of this season's Scottish Cup on the 10th of December. The Kirkcaldy club, famously winners of the League Cup in 1994, have gone through a sticky spell in recent years and currently sit 4th in the Second Division. During their glory days, in January 1996 to be exact, they met Queen's for the last time to date in a Third Round Scottish Cup tie which they won 3-0 at Stark's Park. Having been given a bye, Queen's will now have a free Saturday on 19th November; there is thankfully no prospect of us facing Berwick that day, as the league leaders will be in First Round action. So we have both a cup-tie against Raith Rovers and a Hogmanay visit to England to look forward to - December will be an intriguing month. 16th: Montrose 0 Queen's Park 1 - not our best but still enough A second-half goal from David Weatherston gave Queen's the victory, one that is potentially vital as we avoided losing ground on East Fife and Cowdenbeath. His casually-flighted lob 6 minutes after the break allowed Queen's to take a grip on a match that until then had not swung in either team's favour. The clear difference that allowed Queen's to win was the passing genius of Paul Harvey, back after injury without having lost any of the combination of patience, arrogance and virtuosity that make him possibly the best midfielder in the league. 3rd: Queen's Park 2 Arbroath 2 - not quite what the Doctor ordered Despite a largely uninteresting display Queen's should have seen off Arbroath at Hampden on Saturday, and for another week a lack of communication in defence was to blame. Cook gave Arbroath the lead early in the second-half, but as so often a quickfire burst put Queen's right back into it. First Kevin 'Doctor' Proctor, making his debut, raced free and finished in such a cool manner it brought to mind Frankie Carroll's common inability to score such goals last season. Then a mazy Trouten run was rewarded with a penalty kick that Alan himself converted. Queen's looked content yet a blunder by David Crawford, charging from his goal and fluffing his catch from a cross, allowed Dobbins to deflect the ball in for an equaliser Arbroath were visibly shocked to receive. September 2005: 11th: Elgin City 2 Queen's Park 2 - extraordinary ending Yet again, a Queen's game at Borough Briggs provided buckets of controversy, drama, raw emotion, and, all too often, dismal footballing. But Queen's survived their awful first half performance yesterday to gain a draw, David Weatherston and Steven Reilly's penalty salvaging the point from a match that had seemed well and truly lost. 9th: A new striker - but the wait goes on Billy Stark has completed the signing of Kevin Proctor, a forward who has played in several friendly matches as a trialist since the summer. 23 year-old Proctor left Pollok at the end of last season, having scored 7 goals that campaign. However, Billy Stark doesn't intend to throw him straight into league action, and he will be given time to adjust by playing in the Strollers until he is ready for the first team. Mick Dunlop however has been passed fit, and will travel tonight with the squad as they prepare for tomorrow's fixture with Elgin City at Borough Briggs. August 2005: 27th: Queen's Park 3 Albion Rovers 1 - Rovers' records in tatters Queen's jumped to third position in the table with this victory, and in so doing ended Rovers' astonishing unbeaten record on their travels. The Coatbridge side had not lost an away league game since Gretna hammered them last November, the best contemporary run in Scottish football. They also hadn't lost at Hampden since 1999, and for the first half yesterday it seemed both records would remain intact. Martin Bonnar's simple header had put Rovers in front, the midfielder inevitably returning to punish Queen's, and Queen's had been very short on ideas throughout the half. But a quick double from Mark Ferry after the restart had Queen's suddenly in control, and confidence soared after that. A fine goal from Bryan Felvus in stoppage time then made the three points certain. 23rd: Queen's Park 0 Hearts 2 An underwhelming Hearts team defeated Queen's in this League Cup tie, but Queen's showed plenty of pluck to please an enthusiastic home support. If it hadn't been for two desperately poor pieces of defending, Queen's could possibly have taken the SPL leaders to extra-time. Instead, the game was as good as won at half-time for Hearts, Jankauskas twice pouncing to poke the ball home after Queen's had taken far too long, and failed, to clear their lines. Such was the commitment to quality football from Queen's that they seemed loath to get too involved in the ugly aspects of defending. But McGinty and Quinn both almost equalised, at a time when Queen's were exciting their support with some inspired bursts forward, and we ended the game with our pride more than in intact. 13th: Cowdenbeath 0 Queen's Park 2 Queen's won their first league game of the season with a fine win at Cental Park. John Weir scored his first goal for the first team with a first-half header before Stevie Reilly netted a second from the penalty spot on 66 minutes. 11th: CIS Cup Draw The draw was made today for the second round of the CIS Cup. Queen's were handed a home tie against possibly the best side in this round's draw, Hearts. The game will be played on either Tuesday 23rd or Wednesday 24th August at Hampden. The full draw reads something like this: Aberdeen v Berwick Falkirk v Partick Thistle Gretna v Dunfermline ICT v Alloa Kilmarnock v Stirling Motherwell v Hamilton Peterhead v Clyde Queen's Park v Hearts Raith Rovers v Livingston Ross County v Ayr United St. Johnstone v St. Mirren Stranraer v Dundee 9th: East Stirlingshire 1-3 Queen's Park Queen's made it though to the second round of the CIS Insurance League Cup tonight with a 3-1 win at Firs Park. With Queen's 3-0 up at half time, it had been hoped that more goals were to follow in the second, but Shire tightened up and pulled a goal back. The result thought was never really in doubt after Paul Harvey's wonder-strike of a free-kick on the stroke of half time. July 2005: 31st: Queen's Park 0 Hamilton Academical 3 As expected Queen's went out of the Bell's Cup, losing their first round tie against Hamilton to three second half goals. 23rd: Latest pre-season games The Queen's Park first XI were in action today against Dumbarton in a closed door match at Hampden, unfortunately going down by three goals to two. On a happier note though, the Victoria XI were also in action, taking on Threave Rovers in Castle Douglas. It was an entertaining game, which at one point saw the Queen's youngsters leading two nil. Threave pulled back two goals, the second coming with only a minute to play, and the match finished 2-2, but it was a good performance from the Under-19s against a side that could possibly have held its own in the Third Division. A match report will follow soon, after your reporter has recovered from his five-hour journey home. (I'll tell you all about that later too!) 21st: Shire in the League Cup Queen's will play East Stirlingshire in the opening round of this season's League Cup. The tie will go ahead at Firs Park, either on the 9th or 10th of August. Honestly speaking, this gives us a wonderful chance of making the Second Round. Queen's last travelled to Firs Park on League Cup business on 19th August 1980. Having already won the first leg of this First Round tie 1-0, Queen's set about Shire easily and won 4-0 in front of 500. Gerry McCoy grabbed a hat-trick and current committee member Jimmy Nicholson got the other. Sadly, Partick Thistle proved too much in the next round, but the season ended in triumph with Queen's famously taking the Second Division championship. Halcyon days... We understand that a closed-doors game took place at Hampden last night; Queen's went down 4-1 to SPL club Falkirk. Remaining on the pre-season itinerary are Dumbarton on Saturday ( closed-doors again at Hampden ) and Stirling Albion on July 26th at Lesser Hampden. It would seem also that some sort of team will be sent to face Threave Rovers at Castle Douglas on Saturday. Reportedly Paddy Connolly will not be joining Queen's but will instead be Paul Martin's latest signing for Dumbarton. Of course there has been no incoming transfer activity at Hampden this close season; a little alarming when the season is only a week away - though at least one trialist has been fielded in the friendlies. 17th: Paddy Connolly a target? It has been suggested to us that Billy Stark may be after Paddy Connolly, who he worked with previously at St. Johnstone. The 35 year-old striker was released by Ayr United in the summer and lives locally to Hampden. While not the target man most fans believe Queen's require most, Connolly has been a reasonably talented player over the years, and one whose career has sadly been littered with injuries. Whether there's anything concrete in the story we should know soon. 17th: Pre-season games Since we last spoke to you, Queen's have been involved in another couple of pre-season friendlies, against First Division sides St. Mirren and Hamilton. Billy Stark fielded our strongest possible eleven against St. Mirren at Lesser Hampden last Thursday, and a competent performance brought a 2-2 draw. Mark Ferry scored two goals: the first a rebound after John Weir had shot tamely at the Saints goalkeeper shortly before the break, the second a superb long-range header from Whelan's pinpoint cross. Both strikes were equalisers. A young trialist forward came off the bench but made little impression. Then, yesterday, Hamilton were 4-0 winners in Largs, where Queen's have based themselves this weekend for some intensive training and team bonding. For full details on this game, see qpfc.com. The team played, and the formation used, were more experimental this time, and clearly didn't work on the day. 8th: Injury news Queen's already have a couple of players ruled out of the start of the season. Alan Trouten was taken to hospital last week with appendicitis, and will have to miss the start of the season while he recovers. Stuart Kettlewell is also ruled out at the moment, having caught mumps. Added to this, Steven Canning is still recovering from his leg fracture sustained towards the end of last season. 7th: Queen's Park 1 Queen of the South 2 - opening pre-season game A Queen's side missing several important players went down 2-1 to First Division Queen of the South in Stepps last night. David Weatherston scored the goal for QP, responding in the second half to two goals from former Celtic player Brian McLaughlin. Perhaps of concern is that Jonny Whelan had to be fielded as an auxiliary striker, hinting at our shortage in the attacking positions. Apparently Jonny did cause some bother to the QOS defence and will be an important presence at the club next season, but as a striker he won't be the answer. Youngsters Liam McCann, Stevie Gibson, Ross Campbell, Paul Paton and Brendan McIlduff were all fielded. We seem to have played well, and only an appalling decision by referee Chris Boyle ( surely not ) denied us a draw, a QOS player clearly handling in the area only for Boyle to let play continue. Next up is Motherwell on Saturday, and unlike last night this website will be represented at that fixture, with a short report due to appear afterwards. Click here for last night's line-ups. 5th Pre-season gets underway from tomorrow Queen's open their pre-season schedule with a fixture against Queen of the South tomorrow. The match will start at 7.30 pm and is being played at the St. Aloysius playing fields, situated in the far-flung wastes of Stepps. Although technically this game, and the follow-up fixture against Motherwell on Saturday, are being taken as closed-door matches, any fan that wants to see them will find it easy enough to do so. Saturday's game will be played at the Glasgow Science Park in Maryhill, at 3 pm. June 2005: Pre-season friendlies to be closed-door: Much to the disappointment of some of the QP support, it was announced by the Club this week that ALL of Queen's Park's pre-season friendlies will be played behind closed doors. This is partly at the request of Billy Stark, who feels this will give him more freedom to use as many subs as he wants, as well as keeping out visiting scouts who may wish to steal our players. Also, the Club themselves have the expense of stewarding these friendlies, an expense which is rarely covered by the gate money taken at these games. Fixtures announced for 2005/06 season: The fixtures for the new season were announced today. Queen's will start at home to Stenhousemuir on the 6th of August, with our first away game coming the next week at Cowdenbeath. Queen's final home league fixture will be against Cowden on April 22nd, and we travel down to Berwick for the last game of the season. The highlight of this fixture list however has to be our away trip to Berwick on 31st December. We'll just have to hope that that game goes ahead! Frankie Carroll leaves: As we expected after his great season in 2004-05, Frankie Carroll does indeed appear to have opted to leave Queen's Park. His destination however is a little bit surprising: it had been rumoured that 2nd Division clubs had been after Frankie's signature, but in fact he has decided to join our fellow 3rd Division club Stenhousemuir. We wish Frankie all the best, and thank him for his time with Queen's, most notably last season and of course the Championship season of 1999-2000. Pre-season friendlies: The Club have announced four pre-season friendlies for the month of July. They are all scheduled to be home games, though it is unclear as yet which will be played at Hampden and which at Lesser. Provisionally, the games will be against Queen of the South on the 6th July, Motherwell on the 9th, St. Mirren on the 14th, and Stirling Albion on the 26th. May 2005: Challenge Cup draw: Queen's have been drawn against Hamilton Accies in the 1st Round of the 2005 Challenge Cup. The game will be played at Hampden on Saturday 30th July - the first competitive match of the season. Play-off system: The SFL this month voted in favour of introducing a play-off system to decide promotion/relegation between the three SFL divisions. The new system will involve the bottom club in the First and Second divisions being automatically relegated, while the Second and Third division champions gain automatic promotion. 9th in the upper division then plays off against 4th in the lower, while 3rd and 2nd meet in the other semi-final, home and away. The winners meet in a two-leg final for the right to play in the upper division the next season. Squad latest: Since the end of the season, Queen's have released Ally Graham, Gavin Rushford, Brian Blair and Louis Watters, while Danny Ferry has signed for Paul Martin at Dumbarton. On a happier note, it has been announced that all other senior players have signed on for next season. Of course, we expect new signings to before the start of the new season, but as is often the way with Queen's, it probably won't be till early July before we see any new faces coming in.. Fansite revamping: It is our intention to get this site fully up and running again by the start of the new season. This will include new player profiles, up-to-date news, plus anything else that we realise needs doing. We apologise for any inconvenience caused so far. |
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| New signing Kjartan Henry Finnbogason - certainly the first Icelandic to join Queen's Park! |