| ALLEZ LES HOOPS |
| And once again we manage to snatch a point from the jaws of victory. Ah well. Considering we didn't play well at all for the majority of the game, we maybe shouldn't be too upset about the draw. Then again Elgin were just as poor, if not worse. I hope Davie Roberston is proud of himself. He's brought in a team consisting mainly of kickers and in the case of Andy Goram, a physical wreck who should have retired months ago. The novelty value must have worn off. Goram is a joke; he's conceded 7 in the last two games. We don't need more codgers preventing promising youngsters coming through. We get enough of that at Gretna. Anyway, despite Elgin's lack of ambition, they managed to hold Queen's for large parts of the game and even managed to nick an early goal. Of course, the goal came from their only player: Willie Martin. Martin looked extremely impressive, commanding the game whenever he was on the ball. Queen's have lost a great player and he's wasted at Elgin. What was disappointing today was the lack of imagination from Queen's. Granted, the pitch was awful and the rain and muck must have made it difficult to play, but the big boot up to Ally Graham is too primitive and can be easily snuffed out by even the least talented of players. So once again, we're left scratching our heads and wondering where in the hell Ross Clark was. He was hardly noticed today, which is a huge disappointment. I don't know whether he has been told by Kenny Brannigan to stay back and play in a more holding role, but I certainly think that Ross could have made a real difference today with his abilities in driving the game forward. It was only really in one instance in the second half that we saw the Ross Clark that shone in the games against Inverness and Livingston. And we really missed David McCallum today too. Young John Thompson is a good player, but he's not a wing back like McCallum is. Today we should have put Andy Goram under more pressure with crosses. The ex-Ranger flapped at one corner in the second half and barely punched one away in another occasion. So we'll need more variation in our play against Gretna next week. But if the big ball is persisted with, Holdsworth and Knox and co. won't have any problems in punting the ball away. Anyway, enough with the bad stuff. I think it was encouraging how we managed to hit two quick goals. Queen's realised that an equaliser could crush Elgin - and it did. Super-sub Steven McAuley's fine wing play found the boot of fellow sub Paddy Gallagher, who did well to strike a volley of sorts at the back post. It was a simple goal really, and all it took was a bit of patient play along the deck. No big punt required. Granted, the second goal did come from the big kick, but that's not to take away from McAuley's wonderful finish past Goram. To have the bottle to finish it that way deserves great credit. And it was all over - or so we thought. Elgin finished the way they played most of the game and a big lucky lump up the park forced Scrimgour into making an awkward tip over his bar. Whether the game should have been over by then is another matter. The resulting corner was a sickener. I had a flashback as soon as Willie Martin hit the kick to all those last minute corner nightmares. And who should latch onto it, but big Jamie White, who had kicked everything that came towards him all day, and it usually wasn't the big white thing either. He jumped up with Scrimgour, appeared to bundle the keeper down, and nodded the ball into the net. The Queen's players must have had a case when protesting with the referee. It certainly looked as if Scrimgour was fouled. And Derek seems like an honest enough guy, so a deliberate fall, especially at that time of the game, would have been too much to risk. As it happened, the goal was given and it was just the icing on the cack for the fans of both teams who had to put up with unadulterated rubbish from the ref all afternoon. Whistler Ritchie acted like someone auditioning for Neighbours as he swooped in on harmless incidents almost encouraging mass brawls. Twice this happened, more notably in the second half. Admittedly, Ross Clark was late, but there didn't look too be too much in the incident until Ritchie threw himself in to break up an non existent bust-up. Of course, only then did the sparks start to fly as players from all directions realised, from Ritchie's amateur dramatics, that something might be going on worth checking out. Obviously Andy Goram fancied a bit of the action (unusual, innit?) and preceded to launch himself into the fray. A terrific example, really. So next week we've got Gretna, which is always an entertaining game. If McAuley starts next week, I'd love to see some of the magic touches he showed today on the ground. A little bit more variation in our attacking and we might be onto something. Ratings: Scrimgour 6, Ferry 6, Thompson 6, Sinclair 7, Agostini 7, Fallon 7, Reilly 6, Clark 6, Whelan 7 (Gallagher 6), Graham 7, Carroll 7 (McAuley 7) Match Rating: ** Man of the Match: Stephen McAuley |