| Cowdenbeath |
| Queen's Park |
| 5 |
| 1 |
| ( Shields 2 ( 1 pen ), Skinner, Buchanan 2 ) |
| ( Whelan ) |
| Yesterday surely represented the definitive mockery of the football fan's existence. Snow-coated, bitter temperatures, standing on a crumbling, uncovered terracing high above a muddy, rutted pitch - you're just not meant to come away happy from this sort of trip and of course we didn't. For yours truly, as well as the struggle to keep warm and see the game properly, there was the additional handicap of trying to produce notes on the game while wearing gloves. I'll leave it up to you to judge whether I succeeded or not. As for the actual game, it was a nightmare. Seldom can Queen's have suffered a freakier scoreline but while there were never four goals between the teams, there were more than enough tell-tale signs, apart from the result, to make it all too obvious that things are far from healthy with the current squad of players and coaching staff. While not privy to what goes on off the pitch apart from fragmented rumours, there are increasing hints that the combination of players and coach is just not working. We do possess a reasonable squad, so why have we gone so long without achieving anything of any sort? It would help if players were played in their natural positions. It would help if the manager didn't find it so easy to alienate certain players. It would even help if he possessed an evident appreciation of tactics. As none of these things are the case, the committee's decision to give Kenny Brannigan an extra year's contract is looking an ill-advised and short-sighted one. Our inconsistency makes matters even more infuriating because we don't always, or even usually, struggle like this. A Shire fan can handle a hammering at Cowdenbeath because it's by and large all he is used to. But us... we saw our team compete very well against both Montrose and Gretna only a few weeks ago. Then along comes another hammering, our third in just 6 games. Any doubts about whether the match would go ahead were dispelled when the supporters' bus arrived to a dry and clear Cowdenbeath an hour before kick-off. Within that hour however, snow started to fall making conditions more annoying than anything else, and there was never any chance of an abandonment ( something we'd regret long before the final whistle ). Without Moffat and Gallagher, both of whom seem likely to have left for good, there were no changes to the starting eleven that played so well against Montrose, and after just two minutes a repeat of that performance seemed on the cards when Queen's opened the scoring. Not at all surprisingly, Carcary's pace was the main instigator, as the youngster collected a pass down the right-flank, burst away and sent a clinical ball into the area where Whelan was waiting to turn a shot past Carlin. All the more frustrating then that the rest of the Queen's players would fail to provide Carcary with sufficient service until his eventual replacement, leaving him to chase down defenders and rely on scraps when a few decent passes could have seriously threatened the Cowden defence. The play was very disjointed in the early stages but Queen's looked clearly on top and for the most part the ball was in the Cowdenbeath half of the pitch. Whelan dipped a drive past the post in the 12th minute and a Harvey corner caused some discomfort for Carlin in the swirling wind. Then in 19 minutes Steven Reilly was again yellow carded, for full-blooded challenge in midfield which came a little too late but deserved to be punished. While Reilly is only able to contribute hard tackles, most of them mistimed, he is of little use to Queen's and his place in the team should be in danger. After 26 minutes Cowdenbeath got the equaliser. A corner from the right was poorly struck but fell for the unmarked Shields 12 yards out, and he managed to get his foot over the ball to send a volley through a bundle of players into the net. If the marking had been up to scratch the goal would never have been scored. Those not at the game would be forgiven for imagining that Queen's fell apart conceding the first. Not so as we continued to look the likelier side, playing a neat passing game in patches without looking menacing in attack. A hooked shot from Whelan on the spin was saved, and Carcary kept on bothering the home defence, forcing McKeown into bodycheck which earned the defender a yellow card. At this stage Whelan was running the midfield, his best game for a while. But defensive mistakes would cost Queen's again. With 37 minutes played, a stupid challenge from Danny Ferry, sliding in on Skinner from the back, resulted in a penalty kick award which seemed correct, difficult as it was to judge. Without doubt, Skinner was not averse to going down, but there was no need for Ferry to go chuntering in like that. Shields, having grabbed the equaliser, now put the home side in front by firing high to Scrimgour's left. Despite the errors the scoreline was hard on Queen's but Carroll could have brought us back level before the break, his back-header rising on to the roof of the net from an awkward position. Surely a second-half comeback was possible, even if our record after falling behind is so bad? Such hopes were ended within 8 minutes of the re-start. Once more, the defence was out of sight when Skinner collected a loose ball 22 yards out, and with loads of room in front of him, he took full advantage by driving his shot low and home via Scrimgour's left-hand post. There was little the keeper could have done given that Skinner had a clear view of goal, and it appeared that the defence had capsized totally. Cowdenbeath were now in control, and Gilfillan nearly made it four when his header struck the crossbar. A minute later Clark was booked for a foul that was more apparent than real, then Fallon, seeing nothing in front of him, moved forward before rattling in a reasonable shot that Carlin parried. Scrimgour then pulled off a fine save, remarkably one of the few he would have to make, and technically he didn't even have to make it either; Shields was in an offside position when his fierce shot from a Skinner cross was blocked. Seeing changes as a necessity Kenny Brannigan thew on Graham and Kettlewell in place of Carcary and Agostini. Given that these are two of the most important players in the side, and neither was exactly playing badly, it was a questionable decision and arguably weakened the defence further while doing little to inject life into the forward line. Still, with them on the park only a few seconds Carroll came close to pulling one back, trying his luck from a tight angle and seeing the effort pushed away. The game was now beyond Queen's, even if Graham wasn't too far away with a well-placed free kick and McAuley got a belated introduction ( for Harvey ). The defence had lost the plot, and Skinner hit a volley only narrowly over from 30 yards when again completely free. In 82 minutes, the fourth arrived, and so simply. Buchanan, off the bench, latched on to a ball sent through the middle and paced clear of a static defence before coolly slotting past Scrimgour. It was turning into an embarassment. Sadly matters were only to get worse. Buchanan added a fifth before the end, again racing clear with the defence caught up the park, and lobbing over Scrimgour's head from 20 yards. Naturally the final minutes were played out in a surreal atmosphere, with the snow back and an argument amongst opposing fans proving far more entertaining than the play. McAuley had an honourable attempt to salvage something back, hitting the side-netting from an acute angle, but Cowden could have added yet another goal as Queen's sank lower and lower. Eventually the whistle blew to put the lid on a humiliating defeat, another nail in the coffin of a depressing season. Cowdenbeath: Andy Carlin, David Mowat, David McInally ( Iain Mauchlen 46 ), Bryan Gilfillan, John McKeown, Innes Ritchie, John Paul Kelly, Gary Fusco, Dene Shields, Steven Skinner ( Liam Buchanan 72 ), Liam McGuinness ( Ryan McCallum 46 ). Substitutes not used: Presley Orhue, Allan Fleming. Booked: McKeown, Mauchlen. Goals: Dene Shields 26, penalty 38, Steven Skinner 53, Liam Buchanan 82, 87. Queen's Park: Derek Scrimgour, Danny Ferry, David Stewart, Ross Clark, Damiano Agostini ( Stuart Kettlewell 63 ), Steven Fallon, Paul Harvey ( Stephen McAuley 74 ), Steven Reilly, Frankie Carroll, Jonny Whelan, Derek Carcary ( Ally Graham 63 ). Substitutes not used: David McCallum, David Crawford. Booked: Reilly, Clark, Kettlewell. Goal: Jonny Whelan 2. Referee: Scott MacDonald. Attendance: 275. |