| Berwick Rangers |
| Queen's Park |
| 0 |
| 2 |
| (Trouten, Ferry) |
| This might just turn out to be Queen's biggest league win in seven years. A persistent performance at a windswept Shielfield was finally rewarded with two goals, the first of which came midway through the second half from Alan Trouten. That unleashed Queen's, and a second was added ten minutes later by Mark Ferry, who in doing so became our joint top scorer for the season with his seventh goal in eight games. He was only one of the stars- there were eleven of them. Even Robert Dunn, a late introduction, got himself involved and came close to scoring. But it was the midfield, inspired by Kettlewell and Cairney, that really won us the game, through strong running and boundless energy, as well as some fine interplay that made a mockery of the windy, bumpy conditions. Berwick manager John Coughlin suggested after the match that both sides had been "poor", but, in Queen's case, he must mean in comparison to our 1870s peak perhaps, or maybe the great Brazil or Real Madrid teams of the past. Yes, his team were poor, and maybe we should treat it as a compliment that he believes we are capable of so much better; but in truth he was way off the mark. He did his own team a disservice too; no teams can perform poorly and still win at Berwick. They are a tough side, but they never got their game going at all yesterday, handicapped by the energy expended in beating Dumbarton midweek. David Crawford had almost no saves to make, only one or two free kicks and a couple of fine takes from corners. Queen's, on the other hand, went close several times. During the first-half, O'Connor had to tip a looping free-kick from Paton over the bar, while Stuart Kettlewell also went close after linking up superbly with Paul Cairney. Queen's looked strong and eager throughout, but a goal didn't seem all that likely, particularly as the second half wore on. The great thing about Queen's these days, however, is the winning mentality we've adopted. If it takes 60, 70, 80 minutes to break a team down, fine, we'll still be going after these times. We did it at Elgin a few weeks ago, but that was against a poor team,, and to see off Berwick the way we were about to was of much greater moment. The team might just have been spurred on by an injury to Paul Cairney just after the hour mark. The young midfield general raced through to challenge the keeper, but took O'Connor's studs full in the chest and had to be stretchered off after a considerable delay. The away support, and it was a vast one, howled in anger, and they may just have been justified in claiming a penalty kick. No official will ever award one in such unlikely circumstances though, and Queen's just had to keep going. They did so, bringing on Frankie Carroll; and just like last week, his entry coincided with a goal. Paul Ronald managed to sneak down the right, collecting a throw-in and cutting the ball back from the goalline, and though it took a couple of attempts, Alan Trouten managed to stride forward and hit the ball firmly into the right-hand corner of the goal. Eleven minutes later, we sealed the win. This time Frankie made a direct impact, having a header cleared off the line with what looked suspiciously like an arm, but Mark Ferry stepped up to slam the ball home and bring pandemonium to the terraces. Berwick were broken, and Queen's looked as if they could add to their lead. That would have been unreal in itself, but what if Robert Dunn had scored the third goal? He didn't, but he went close, going through twice but lacking any conviction or power in his shooting. On a further occasion he was dragged back by a defender, but the referee unbelievably gave the decision the other way even if it looked as though the defender was trying to strangle Dunn. God knows, we've all wanted to do that at some point, but come on. This result- our biggest and best since beating Aberdeen- was Queen's fifth win in a row, and also gave us a fifth successive clean sheet, equalling the club's league record. These are superb achievements, and they've given us a genuine chance of the league championship. Things have changed a great deal since we last played Berwick, at Hampden in January, when they won 2-0 and looked out of sight. At that stage the play-offs looked fanciful, but Billy Stark has coaxed some of this team's best-ever performances since that day, and we're now only three points behind. Of the seven remaining matches, four of them look like clear wins provided we are fully prepared mentally, and the first of them is next week at Montrose. The other three fixtures, at Arbroath, Dumbarton and East Fife, are much harder to forecast, but as yesterday's result proved, Queen's are more than capable of rising to these occasions. We CAN win this league- Berwick and Arbroath might seem to have easier run-ins but Berwick are obviously beatable and Arbroath have still to meet us. In addition, both Berwick and Arbroath have double-headers against Shire coming up shortly. Yes, of course they should win these, but Shire are due a couple of breaks after an appalling run of luck recently. It's going to be thrilling and terrifying in equal measure. But even if we don't get there, we'll remember this run, and this match in particular, as the time when a hugely talented team reached the very peak of their game. Berwick Rangers: Gary O'Connor, Steven Notman, Chris McGroarty, Stuart Fraser, Grant McNicoll, Gary Greenhill (Scott Lucas 81), David Greenhill (Steven Noble 39), Ian Thomson, Garry Wood, Iain Diack (Kevin Haynes 78), Robbie Manson. Substitutes not used: Calvin Shand, Chris Flockhart. Booked: Fraser. Queen's Park: David Crawford, Paul Paton, Mick Dunlop, Steven Canning, Damiano Agostini, Alan Trouten, Stuart Kettlewell, Paul Cairney (Frankie Carroll 65), Paul Ronald (Tony Quinn 89), David Weatherston (Robert Dunn 87), Mark Ferry. Substitutes not used: Richard Sinclair, Mark Cairns. Booked: Trouten, Carroll. Goals: Trouten 68, Ferry 78. Referee: Willie Collum. Attendance: 704. |