| Albion Rovers |
| Queen's Park |
| 1 |
| 1 |
| ( Bonnar ) |
| ( Weatherston ) |
| Queen's Park's last couple of visits to Coatbridge have brought rewards, but there was to be no three-in-a-row at Albion Rovers's ground as yet more excruciating defensive inadequacy cost Queen's two points. Missing Paul Harvey once more, Queen's surrendered possession cheaply during the second half, missing golden opportunities to kill off Rovers just after the restart. David Weatherston had put Queen's ahead midway through the first half; Martin Bonnar again punished his old club, one he achieved precious little at. And if it is indeed true that he called 'leave it!' as the cross came in for his goal, confusing the Queen's defence, then one can only condemn him for his dishonesty. In any case, his unpopularity with the Queen's support is assured for all time. As is his team's, but they almost deserved their draw for a fighting effort. They aren't devoid of ability, but are still largely a rudimentary side, one that a team with Queen's (at their peak) passing range should beat; but the passing wasn't in evidence often enough on a difficult surface. And with only one man up front we continue to limit ourselves. Weatherston was excellent, his goal was superb, and Tommy Murray worked like a dog and caused hassle. He seems more of a forward, yet attacks from midfield, but essentially he's nothing we've not had a lot of in recent years. Kevin Proctor has seemed capable of adding a different dimension, yet he was ignored by Stark again. Why? However well Paul Paton might have played last week, there was no doubt that a fit Ross Clark would return to the team at right-back, as he duly did. That was the only change to the victors over Elgin, but the absence of any recognised forward among the substitutes was a cause for concern. As was the identity of the referee, one S. Finnie. Kicking off with the backing of a large portion of the crowd, Queen's didn't get going in the first 20 minutes at all, hindered by a pitch that looked in need of a good seeing to by somebody's mower (as evidently Rovers don't own one). Not too unusually for a Rovers-Queen's game, the fouls were of more interest than most of the play during the first half. Wallace should have been booked after 14 minutes when leaving his foot in as he tackled Reilly, and the same player had the first shot 3 minutes later when his mis-hit volley soared over following Chaplain's knockdown. Two minutes on, and Donachy found himself with the length of the Queen's half to run as Queen's made scant use of a corner kick. Leaving too many men forward, the player broke away with only one Queen's defender in a position to chase, but his shot was tame and posed no difficulty to Crawford. If that was tame, Steven Reilly's tackle a minute later certainly wasn't and earned QP's resident hardman a deserved yellow card. Continuing the violent theme, Lennon was perhaps fortunate to stay on the field five minutes later after aiming to headbutt Trouten on Queen's left wing. His reaction spoke of his guilt, and the Rovers' defender was clearly panicking, but Finnie let him off the hook with a booking. Any anger over that quickly turned to joy for the mass of away fans as Queen's took the lead with their first good attack. Weatherston sold an excellent dummy to his opponent on the left and raced clear with Murray getting forward to back him. As he cut inside, a couple of defenders were there to track Murray, but Davie kept going and rolled the ball through the legs of Ewings for a cheekily cool goal. And there's nothing like a goal at Cliftonhill to get Queen's fans jumping. In keeping with the comic cuts of the last few games, a crazy goal was almost conceded right away, Crawford just about getting back to clear following a passback mixup. Referee Finnie was at his inconsistent best, booking Sinclair for a foul 30 yards out that didn't merit a card, and from the free-kick Crawford had to jump and palm the ball away. The second corner resulted in a curling shot landing just wide of the left hand post. A Wallace overhead kick wasn't too far away, though it was too ambitious an attempt really, and a minute before the break Clark bent the ball round the Rovers wall after a free-kick was tapped to him, Ewings pushing the shot away. Thus Queen's went in at half-time ahead but not really deserving to be. Typically we came back out for the second half revitalized and in a frenzied opening 10 minutes should have moved out of sight of Rovers. Two minutes in a Weatherston shot was cleared off the line as Queen's constructed good passing moves. Then Ferry should have scored, blazing the ball high from a rebound just 12 yards out with bodies in front of him. Queen's kept pounding the Rovers goal and Weatherston's sidefoot effort squeezed narrowly wide, before Ferry had a shot which Ewings spilled before regaining gratefully. In the 54th minute Weatherston broke through the centre but, under pressure, lashed his shot well over, then Trouten tried a Harveyesque lob that missed the target. We should have scored during this period; Trouten, Ferry, Weatherston and Murray in particular had all been teaming up well and finding good positions, but the killer touch wasn't there and regrettably it would turn out to be another burst of inspiration from Queen's. Our ideas would dry up from now on. On the hour mark Crawford had to tip away a fine shot from the edge of the area. Rovers had regrouped and would enjoy a lot of possession from now until the end, too much. Queen's appeared nervous and without Harvey to play in his patient way, we lacked the calming influence. Kettlewell injured himself when striking an overhead kick into the Rovers box in the 79th minute; despite gamely electing to stay on, Billy Stark replaced him with John Weir four minutes later. It would be the only substitution Queen's manager would make. We should have been well capable of seeing the game to a safe conclusion, and Rovers had offered no specific danger. Yet they were able to scramble home an equaliser with 5 minutes remaining. Sinclair didn't defend a cross from the Rovers' right, having apparently been put off by Martin Bonnar pretending to be a Queen's player (isn't that what he did during his entire time at Hampden?) To compound the farce, Steven Reilly slipped, leaving Bonnar with the easiest of chances. He still couldn't hit it properly and had Crawford not been stunned into a statue he may have kept out Bonnar's toed strike. But the ball went in at the post to the joy of the home fans, resigned as they probably were to a defeat. Queen's were shocked into moving forward again, and in truth should have won the game even now. Rovers had to clear a shot off the line and a couple of promising positions simply weren't made use of. Trouten headed a Murray cross straight at Ewings for the last effort of the game. We should have won, we didn't play well, and it's hard to be very enthusiastic about the state of play with Queen's right now. Albion Rovers: Jamie Ewings, Danny Black, Graham McGhee, Gordon Lennon, Ciaran Donnelly, Scott Friel, Ian Chisholm (Stephen Reid 73), Scott Chaplain, George Wallace (Craig Young 49), Martin Bonnar, Stephen Donachy. Substitutes not used: Steven Noble, Andrew Selkirk, Allan Creer. Booked: Lennon, Friel. Goal: Bonnar 85. Queen's Park: David Crawford, Ross Clark, Mick Dunlop, Steven Reilly, Richard Sinclair, Alan Trouten, Stuart Kettlewell (John Weir 83), Tony Quinn, David Weatherston, Tommy Murray, Mark Ferry. Substitutes not used: Jonny Whelan, Shaun Molloy, Paul Paton, Alexander Cowie. Booked: Reilly, Sinclair. Goal: Weatherston 27. Referee: Stephen Finnie. Attendance: 447. |