| Cowdenbeath |
| Queen's Park |
| 6 |
| 0 |
| (Mikko Paatelainen 3, Ritchie, Buchanan, McKenna pen) |
| Queen's fans had known their team would have to lose in the league eventually, and recent uncertain performances made defeat at Central Park a probability. The unavailability of several key players, both up front and at the back, compounded our fears. Yet the way in which we succumbed to Cowdenbeath was shocking to witness; our biggest league defeat since a 6-0 loss to, of all teams, Berwick in 1993. Defeat by this many goals isn't uncommon for Queen's and supporters of a certain vintage will recall various instances. But in a season where the team has been challenging for promotion, and has come off the back off 8 league games without defeat, the despair is even greater; just where did this defeat come from? There have been tell-tale signs at various stages of the campaign that all has not been quite right, the defeat at Spartans and home thrashing by Montrose obvious examples. And what's clear is that without the steel and assurance of Dunlop and Reilly in defence, and the running and energy of Weatherston in attack, we were utterly, utterly lost once things started to turn against us. Agostini gave his second awful performance in the last month and would surely lose his place if it weren't for injury, suspension and lack of other options. The passing of Tony Quinn in midfield was not good enough and it's become increasingly clear that Quinn does not fit in well with our style of play. They were hardly the only failures, yet they are perhaps the most blatant and dispensable ones. Kevin Proctor in attack was invisible, yet can't be properly judged on a performance where he was the only attacker and received little usable service. The lack of goals is now a major concern, yet he may well be persevered with further as options in that area are also severely limited by injuries. This lack of any threat up front- the players never seem to want to shoot even when in the area- and the complete unravelling of any organisation and sense of spirit after the second went in were the chief downfalls on an all-round bad day. Queen's began the game in competitive fashion and there was inevitably little hint of the carnage that was to be wreaked. They could have taken the lead in the tenth minute when Proctor received a pass from Ferry down the left and rode past the onrushing keeper, but his shot ended up being little more than a pass to a defender who had managed to retreat to the box. Once more Proctor was the fall guy. In the twentieth minute a Ward header went narrowly past the upright, and Queen's swiftly moved into attack themselves. Trouten had a chance to shoot at the edge of the box, but Queen's remain infuriatingly over-cautious and he chose not to. A corner was forced, resulted in nothing, and then Cowdenbeath took the lead. Mikko Paatelainen let rip from 25 yards and his shot soared into the net giving Crawford no hope of a save. It was a magnificent goal, no Queen's player had been to blame, and the heads should not have dipped because of it. But a second for Cowdenbeath came just eight minutes later. Buchanan was not picked up on the Queen's right-hand side, and he beat Paton to the ball with Crawford having to hurry out to slide clear. However, he could only get it as far as Paatelainen who rammed the ball home from the edge of the box for his second. Queen's had one attempt before the half ended, Ferry shooting wide from the left of the area. It would turn out to be almost our last respectable effort at goal. Defeat now looked certain but the second-half capitulation was embarassing. On one level, you could dismiss it as unimportant; the players must have known full well that the game was beyond us, given the quality of the opposition and the understrength nature of the Queen's side, and so may have considered any great effort simply not worth the bother. This sounds pretty unlikely, and the truth is that by the end Queen's were a demoralised, torn team. I'll spare you the gory details of the second half. In short, the goals arrived in the 46th, 79th, 86th and 88th minutes, the final of these being from the penalty spot. Queen's were increasingly outclassed, despite a spell of possession midway through the half, and the half was spent just yearning for it all to end. To illustrate just how sorely the defeat was taken, no attempt was even made to collate votes for a 'Player of the Day' on the Supporters' Bus. It's hard to believe anyone would have voted if there had been. What made the result even worse was Elgin's surprise victory at Stenhousemuir, which cut Queen's lead over the Borough Briggs side to just 3 points. We've still got a game in hand, but the great fear must be that the hammering by Cowden will blow us completely off course; in which case our lead will be whittled down quickly. However. it was always unrealistic to expect us to maintain a huge advantage over our rivals such as we had a few weeks ago. Queen's have recovered quickly from great setbacks already this season, such as when we defeated Raith Rovers in the Cup after the Montrose defeat and Elgin away following the Spartans disgrace. Who'd bet against us doing the same to Berwick next Saturday? Cowdenbeath: David Hay, Graham Guy (Mark Baxter 81), Kevin McBride, John Ward, Innes Ritchie, Gary Fusco, Marc Millar, Markus Paatelainen (Darran Thomson 66), Mikko Paatelainen (Boyd 88), David McKenna, Liam Buchanan. Substitutes not used: Dougie Hill, John Gilbertson. Goals: Mikko Paatelainen 22, 30, 86, Ritchie 46, Buchanan 79, McKenna penalty 88. Queen's Park: David Crawford, Paul Paton, Shaun Molloy, Damiano Agostini, Richard Sinclair, Alan Trouten (Ross Clark 63), Stuart Kettlewell, Tony Quinn, Kevin Proctor, Paul Harvey, Mark Ferry (Tommy Murray 63). Substitutes not used: Jonny Whelan, Richard Bowers, Mark Cairns. Booked: Trouten. Referee: William Collum. Attendance: 325. |