| Is there a worse place to lose than at Central Park? Especially this season, when our strong squad and good football should see us beating a side as basic as Cowdenbeath. But after the Blue Brazil netted two goals in a few minutes in a first-half flurry, Queen's struggled to come back, even after the home side were reduced to ten-men. Like Elgin last week, Cowden relied on a bit of luck, some good goalkeeping and a hint of time-wasting to get their win and Queen's really only have themselves to blame for not scoring in a second half which they dominated in the main. On top of that, the game was marred by another poor referee, a Mr Alan Muir, who was keen to stop play at every instance and treated both teams badly, booking players who he later had little choice but to send off. Those being Shields of Cowdenbeath for deliberate hand-ball, Agostini for 'retaliation' and Kettlewell for an incident that most missed, probably falling under the dissent category. Neither team played a dirty game and there was little in the way of malice, until Darren McGregor lunged at Agostini deep into second-half injury time. The Queen's Park team bus arrived a little later than that of the supporters as they had been stuck in traffic on the way to Fife. Ally Graham was in a bit of jam too as fans found out just before the first whistle when it was announced he was starting on the bench. Brian Felvus took his place in the starting eleven. The last time we were at Cowdenbeath we scored an early goal and big Ally started on the bench. We also conceded five in what was a farcical game. Would history repeat itself? Almost, as Kettlewell played in Frankie Carroll in the 2nd minute and the goal-machine fired low in to the bottom left corner from 10 yards out. He could have taken a little more time over the shot, but he obviously wasn't aware of the massive holes in the Cowden defence and he fired perfectly in with his first touch. At this point Queen's were over-running Cowden, playing good passing football and not being troubled much by the home side's attack. A Paul Harvey corner was floated to the edge of the box, where the left boot of David McCallum was waiting. The defender shot over, though, from the inventive move. The football was superb from Queen's as Cowden scrambled the ball away on several occasions to try and divert the danger. Ross Clark shot narrowly past the post on 16 minutes with Carlin helpless to stop it. Brian Felvus then had a chance to double the lead but he couldn't score following Kettlewell's knock down, hitting the ball against a Cowden leg. On 24 minutes, Frankie Carroll missed the chance of the game, which, if had been converted, would have finished Cowden. Brian Felvus showed great vision playing the ball out right to Kettlewell, who crossed into Carroll, but the Queen's goalscorer couldn't direct his sliding effort into the net from a few yards out. Attempts on goal from Felvus and Clark couldn't find the net and in essentially their first proper attack, the home side equalised on 34 minutes. A long free kick was launched high into the Queen's box and Kelly rose to head the ball down to Shields and he lashed the ball past Crawford. Less than two minutes later, Cowden scored an almost identical goal to astonishingly take the lead. Another long free kick, another knock down and another close range finish, this time from Darren Gribben. Crawford was blameless, but the Queen's central defence clearly wasn't, falling for the same move twice. After this, the game died for the meantime with little in the way of efforts from both teams, especially Cowden, following their incredible smash-and-grab attack. McCallum was fouled by Cowden's Dene Shields and the player was booked by referee Muir in what was a tame final 10 first-half minutes. Two minutes into the second-half almost saw Cowden score a third in bizarre circumstances. Kelly crossed in from the left-side and Gavin Rushford dived to aim the ball back to his goalkeeper. But the header resembled more of an attacking move and Crawford had to be quick to get down to stop an own goal. Up the other end, where most of the game stayed, Mark Ferry had his shot blocked from a good position. A minute later, Queen's were unfortunate not to equalise. Once again Paul Harvey played a corner to David McCallum, who was waiting at the edge of the box, but his fierce volley could only find Carlin's right-hand post and the ball was diverted to safety. Ally Graham was sent on by Billy Stark with Brian Felvus going the other way. Shortly after, the incident which should have changed the complexion of the game occurred. A ball was played forward by the Cowden defence and with the ball going out of play, Dene Shields raised his hands after he missed it with his head and Muir showed the striker his second yellow. Although technically the right call, the booking was perhaps a little harsh and no doubt Queen's fans would have felt aggrieved had the same happened to one of their players. Of course it was a stupid thing to do, but Muir should maybe have shown a little more reserve with a player who was hardly a danger to the well-being of the opposition. Referees are obviously pressured these days to show cards instead of talking to players sternly, which is partly the fault of the ever-tightening football rules. Anyway, Ally Graham had his first real chance since coming on, but his deflected shot was comfortably taken by Carlin. Like the infamous 5-1 game the last time the team played at Central, Cowden were using the counter-attack, but Gribben could only shoot wide from a good position. Stuart Kettlewell then was booked for a challenge on Carlin with the ball up for grabs at the edge of the box. Even though Billy Stark waved the young midfielder away and he did as he was told, Muir called him back and booked him, neglecting to book Carlin for reacting angrily to what was a 50-50 ball. Cowden were still countering with Queen's pushing forward but it was Queen's who should have been putting the balls away. Graham tried to lob Carlin but the goalkeeper had little trouble stopping it. Paul Harvey then crossed to Frankie Carroll who couldn't direct his header in. Alan Trouten hit over the bar and so did Harvey as Queen's did everything but score. Agostini picked up a significant booking for a tackle on Buchanan as the Cowden player tried to catch the Queen's defence up the park. Queen's were getting desperate with the clock ticking down and the crosses were being launched into the Cowden area with Carlin doing well to fist the ball away under pressure. Paul Harvey came agonisingly close with a free kick which he directed narrowly past. The Cowden fans were yelling at Muir to end the game as the watch showed the match going heavily into injury time. The referee was correct to add the time on, however, as Carlin in particular had spent great time over taking goal-kicks in the final stages. 5 minutes into injury time, the game took an unsightly turn for the worse. With the only bad challenge of the game, Darren McGregor took out Damiano Agostini with a tackle he was never going to win. The big man fell to the ground but he was soon up to challenge the Cowden substitute over a tackle which had gone unpunished by the referee. Usually a hard but fair player, it was uncharacteristic but justified for the Queen's captain to get up and confront the player who had done a great job of splitting Agostini's leg open with his wayward lunge. As Agostini approached McGregor by pushing him, the referee swanned in to try and split up the scrap which had escalated. With Agostini on the deck, and his shin-pad off and reportedly broken, Muir fumbled for while before producing a second yellow card. Cowden dusted down their stretcher and the Queen's player left the park with the help of QP's backroom staff. Baring such a consequence in mind, Muir could have sent off McGregor, especially since he sent off a player for a hand-ball incident which didn't hurt anyone and didn't prevent anything significant from happening. Instead, he booked McGregor and incredibly gave a throw-in to restart the game, meaning that the booking must have been for the heated incident which involved at least half-a-dozen other players who escaped unpunished. Some consistency should have been the order of the day but Muir couldn't have seen anything wrong with McGregor's tackle and only booked him to even things up. As if all of this wasn't bad enough, stand-side linesman Steven Craven called over Muir and moments later Stuart Kettlewell was sent off to reduce Queen's to nine men. Of course, Muir didn't add any more time on to the injury time despite the Agostini incident wasting a good few minutes, thus rewarding Cowden for McGregor's lunge. After 97 minutes, Muir brought the farcical injury time period to an end, waving away the protests from the incredulous Queen's players. Make no mistake, Queen's should have won this game. The pressure that the away side had should have yielded a goal, but QP never got back to their original form after Cowden scored their second. Had Queen's scored early in the second half, we would have cleared up and won the game, but luck evaded us once again and we had to settle for our third defeat in succession, a worrying statistic after our excellent start to the season. We are certainly worthy of the 3rd place spot, but if we can't convert chances, it'll be a hollow claim and with games against Gretna and Stenhousemuir coming up, points will be needed to sustain a challenge for the 'best of the rest' spot. Any neutral who saw yesterday's game would say that Queen's showed that they were the better 'football' team, but in this game it's not always the best technical team who wins but the side who take their precious few chances and credit to Cowdenbeath - they did that. Man Of The Match: Damiano Agostini Cowdenbeath: Andy Carlin, Andy Campbell, David Williams, David Mowat, John McKeown, Innes Ritchie, John Paul Kelly ( Darren McGregor 89 ), Gary Fusco, Dene Shields, Darren Gribben ( Liam Buchanan 69 ), Iain Mauchlen. Subs Not Used: Calvin Shand, Darren Miller, Scott Findlay (GK). Booked: Campbell; Kelly; Mauchlen; McGregor; Shields Sent Off: Shields (second booking; deliberate handball) Goals: Shields 33, Gribben 35 Queen's Park: David Crawford, Alan Trouten, David McCallum, Gavin Rushford, Damiano Agostini, Paul Harvey, Stuart Kettlewell, Ross Clark, Brian Felvus ( Ally Graham 53 ), Frankie Carroll, Mark Ferry. Subs Not Used: Brian Blair, Shaun Molloy, Richard Sinclair, Stephen McGovern (GK) Booked: Kettlewell (two footed tackle); Agostini (late tackle) Sent Off: Agostini (second booking; retaliation); Kettlewell (second booking; dissent?) Goal: Carroll 2 Referee: Alan Muir Attendance: 280 |
| Cowdenbeath 2 Queen's Park 1 |
| Shields, Gribben Carroll |