| The news that Billy Stark wouldn't be bringing any new players in during the open transfer window wasn't met with any degree of panic with the knowledge that we were playing East Stirling on the following Saturday. But after yesterday, a 3-1 defeat and an overall performance of shocking ineptitude, it now seems that a few new players could have been brought in to spark some off-form Spiders into life. We could blame the hopeless referee Crawford Allan, the mire of a pitch or the absence of Alan Trouten, but these are all side-shows. Queen's Park should be beating East Stirling on an ice-rink with Stevie Wonder as the referee. The Firs Park side are arguably the worst team in Scottish Football League history, so how could it be so bad? Bad passing, no motivation, pathetic positioning and an overall laziness of a team which thought they had the game sown up before they even laced the boots. You'd have thought we'd had learned our lesson after our 0-0 draw with Shire at Hampden when our complacency was the only talking point. But after the 4th, 15th and 37th minute it was obvious we hadn't. Two fine goals from trialist Chris McGroarty and a good penalty from Ian Diack - two players Queen's would take in a flash - sealed Queen's's fate in an awful first half. Worse yet, Queen's had not one comeback in the second period, with Frankie Carroll missing a penalty and all too many players missing their form. Billy Stark didn't have the services of Alan Trouten so last week's hero Danny Ferry was back in defence. Molloy was on the defensive left, Brian Blair kept his place in midfield and Ally Graham started in attack. Otherwise it was the same. As we expected, Queen's made most of the running to start and Frankie Carroll was quick down the right to earn a corner. After that wasted set-piece, Ross Clark blew another, slipping over a 35 yard free-kick. With their first attack of the game though, East Stirling scored the opener. Good work on the left-side finished with the trialist Chris McGroarty hammering a shot past an exposed David Crawford from 12 yards, as the Queen's defence simply looked on in a casual fashion. But no cause for alarm, or so we thought, and we soon got another corner which Ross Clark took and Ally Graham couldn't connect with. Our first real chance to equalise came on 11 minutes as Graham charged down the Shire goalkeeper Derek Jackson but Mark Ferry panicked as he shot and Graham couldn't get out of the offside position quick enough as the ball came his way. We lived to regret the miss on 15 minutes as incredibly Shire doubled their lead with another fine counter-attacking goal. Iain Diack latched onto a long-ball down-field and McGroarty smacked the ball in once again from a similar distance to his first. We weren't panicking just yet. After all, 75 minutes to go and plenty of chances still to come? The scary thing was, that we didn't really look like scoring and Derek Jackson wasn't being seriously tested nearly enough. He did have to make a great save on 20 minutes from Frankie Carroll, however, as a Ross Clark corner was nodded down by Graham, cleared, and then returned by Mark Ferry for the striker to shoot. Controversy flared as the players waited for the resulting corner. Ally Graham appeared to approach Greig Denham and the ex-Motherwell defender went down holding his face, the usual reaction of someone who has been headbutted seriously. Whether it was serious or just another Peter Lovenkrands-esque incident was unclear. Regardless, the Shire players, noticing Denham on the ground, went off on one, and started to man-handle Frankie Carroll even though he didn't appear to be involved. You could be fooled for thinking there was a referee on the park, as Crawford Allan seemed unsure as to what to do with the resulting scrap. It was defused by the players themselves, luckily, and no players' names were taken. Scott Livingstone was booked three minutes later, for a very late tackle on Ross Clark. Steven Oates, a minute later, probably should have been booked for an equally late tackle on Molloy, but to expect consistency from Allan would be too much of course. That fracas distracted Queen's but the goal finally came on 27 minutes. A scramble in the box ended with Ally Graham poking the ball in from 6 yards. Queen's were getting more corners and free-kicks that anyone could ask for but they were all pathetically taken and wasted and Shire broke away on 37 minutes (their third attack of the game) and managed to get a penalty. Gavin Rushford was skinned by Diack and the forward's fall inside the box didn't merit a kick, but Allan gave it anyway. Diack himself scored the penalty straight down the middle of Crawford's goal and we had now conceded three goals to East Stirling in just over 30 minutes. Penalty or not, this was pathetic. It could have been four on 43 minutes but Crawford tipped over a brilliant effort from McGroarty. After Graham had a header saved by Jackson following a Carroll cross, Allan called time on the worst first-half performance of the season. Incredibly, the second half was to prove worse. Any one of a number of Queen's players could have been pulled off at half-time, but it was the hardworking Brian Blair - not on form yesterday though - who was replaced by Jonny Whelan, a desperate measure to get some life back into the performance. Shire were not playing above themselves and decided to defend for most of the second-half, something which they did very well. Because of this, it took six long minutes for Queen's to force a chance and Mark Ferry shot wide after linking up with Carroll. Two minutes later, Ross Donaldson somehow found himself in the Queen's area and even managed to get a corner. How was it that dire Shire looked the more likely to score? A blocked Mark Ferry shot gave Queen's another chance from a corner. Ross Clark fluffed the kick and the cleared ball landed to Richard Sinclair, who blasted wide. Queen's were relying on long throws from Jonny Whelan and the Spiders somehow got a penalty on 58 minutes after the slightest of pushes on Ally Graham. So, a great chance to get back in it and it was Frankie Carroll to take. In typical fashion of yesterday, it was missed. In what was one of the worst on-target penalties ever, Carroll passed the ball into the hands of Jackson who dived to his right to collect the ball. Another great chance squandered. 7 minutes later, Carroll nearly scored from a considerably more difficult chance but Jackson was well aware to tip over a swerving shot from just outside the box from the left-side. Shire won a corner on 67 minutes but the solid Denham headed wide. And 6 minutes later Shire won a free-kick 30 yards out after a Whelan foul, but the kick was straight at Crawford. With 75 minutes, Billy Stark made a bit of a tactical error by taking off Graham and replacing him with Brian Felvus. Surely three in attack would have made more sense? Queen's had all the possession but were all too eager to give it away and the fans were becoming restless, urging the players to move forward. Shire had defended in the most basic way possible, but it worked. David Harvey picked up a booking for kicking the ball away to try and waste time, and Kettlewell was quick to waste another good chance. Jonny Whelan provided the comic relief with eight minutes to go as he managed to take the ball out of Jackson's grasp as the goalkeeper was set to punt the ball down-field. The goal was disallowed. Kettlewell was replaced by Tony Livingston. In truth, Kettlewell should have been subbed much sooner. With the clock running down and Queen's playing as though they all had hangovers, it looked too late to throw on a inexperienced youngster to try and mix things up. With four minutes left, Queen's had a good chance from a free-kick 20 yards from goal. Of all people, Gavin Rushford stepped up to take the kick and he not only hit the ball over the bar, but he also cleared the wall behind the goal. An insulting kick on an insulting day. This ridiculous waste was topped when Rushford saw fit to punt the ball into the seated stand and he was rightly booked and perhaps lucky to stay on the park. As if to give us as much time as possible to get us a goal, Allan added five minutes on at the end. In truth, we wouldn't have scored had you given us another 50 minutes. The better and more eager side on the day won and Queen's were left red-faced after the worst performance of the season and also in recent memory. If Shire are the worst team in the country then I'm not sure where that leaves us. Certainly, we are no worse than them, but there's no point in us boasting that we are something which we clearly are not, that being the 3rd best team in the league. The players showed yesterday that they're not ready as a team to raise their game against poorer sides and with Cowdenbeath almost out of sight, it looks as though the best we can do is 4th place. If Stuart Kettlewell is out for a long time with injury, in almost every other circumstance we wouldn't be too worried after his performance yesterday. But with our squad being as thin as it is, we need him and even the players who played badly will still be in the team which will play East Fife next week. There is simply no alternative and unless Billy Stark can rope some new players in at the last minute, it looks as though we'll be consigned to work with what we've got for some time yet. |
| East Stirlingshire Queen's Park |
| 3 McGroarty (2), Diack (pen) 1 Graham |
| East Stirlingshire: Derek Jackson, David Harvey, Scott Livingstone, Steven Oates, Greig Denham, John Walker, Paul Ross ( Sean McAuley 82 ), Paul Tyrrell, Ross Donaldson ( Derek Ure 89 ), Iain Diack, Trialist (Chris McGroarty). Substitutes Not Used: Derek Rae, Gordon Parks, Tony Mitchell (GK). Booked: Livingstone, Harvey Goals: McGroarty 4, 15; Diack (penalty) 37 Queen's Park: David Crawford, Danny Ferry, Shaun Molloy, Gavin Rushford, Richard Sinclair, Brian Blair ( Jonny Whelan 46 ) , Stuart Kettlewell ( Tony Livingston 82 ), Ross Clark, Ally Graham ( Brian Felvus 75 ), Frankie Carroll, Mark Ferry. Substitutes Not Used: Tony Quinn, Steven McGovern (GK) Booked: Rushford Goal: Graham 26. Referee: Crawford Allan Attendance: 317 |