| Dumbarton |
| Queen's Park |
| 0 |
| 0 |
| Two former titans of the Scottish game played out a goalless draw in the shadow of the sheer cliff-face of the Rock yesterday, a result that neither will quibble with too much. As far as Queen's are concerned, the achievement of another clean sheet by a makeshift defence- in front of a different keeper, David Crawford, to last week- was satisfying. Still, the same difficulties in beating a tough organised defence that plagued us in the earlier away games at Berwick and East Fife were still present. We only had one real chance in the whole game, and that was squandered by Paul Cairney's hesitation in delivering the final pass. With no shortage of effort in the side- some have argued the opposite in the case of Robert Dunn- the main problem to solve is how to find that extra seam of creativity. At the moment we do not seem to possess enough players with both the personality and the talent required to make things happen; all of the players possess either of these attributes, but few have both. So when David Weatherston is off-colour as he was yesterday, we look unable to score no matter how much of the ball we have. With Trouten, Sinclair and Paton still suspended, and Reilly injured, the last thing Billy Stark would have wanted was more call-offs. Unfortunately, Mark Cairns's shoulder injury, something that's troubled him from his youth, had been aggravated, and so David Crawford stepped in. But there's no team in the league that can call on a pair of such competent keepers, and Crawford gave a performance as firm as Dumbarton Rock. So did Steven Canning at right-back. He swapped places with Paul Cairney from the Arbroath game, and arguably both were better suited to their new positions. Queen's made a strong start and delved deep into Dumbarton's half in the early stages. In the opening minute, Weatherston set up Ferry, who couldn't quite get his shot in. Shortly after, once David had laid him off, Kettlewell blasted an effort a long way past. It's something he'd like to improve on. Dumbarton striker Dobbie was making his last appearance before a return to St. Johnstone, from where he's been on loan. Dumbarton's main threat, he was allowed to stroll through the Queen's defence in the 6th minute, lofting a shot just over the bar. Thankfully we would stick a lot more tightly to him for the rest of the game. DC made his first save with a catch from McQuilken's header, before Ronald got a touch on Canning's near-post corner, forcing a defender to clear off the line. Then a rare lapse by Agostini kept Dobbie in an onside position, and the striker had clear sight of goal; but his low drive was saved comfortably. Stuart Kettlewell became the first Queen's player to go in the book, for a tackle from behind on Dillon, whose fall looked rather less than genuine. Referee Stephen Nicholls had an inconsistent afternoon at best and seemed lost when making foul decisions much of the time. There'd be more of that, but the last action of the half arrived when Ronald's shot was quickly charged down. Queen's came back out for the second half with Tommy Murray in place of Tony Quinn, the midfielder succumbing to injury. He'd started the game with his leg strapped, in fact. Queen's lost a bit of drive with his absence, and though he played tidily Tommy Murray would give no indication that he is good enough for regular football with Queen's Park. A poor corner from Canning upon three minutes of the resumption let Dumbarton break away, but Dobbie dragged his shot across goal from a good position. Dumbarton's technique had been suspect and their defence limited (though tough enough to cope with us), but in attack they seemed lively enough. In the 56th minute Brittain found himself in plenty of space and unleashed a rising shot that Crawford had to tip over the top. Again, Crawford reacted sharply at the corner, pushing the veteran Craig's header over. These corners looked like Dumbarton's best route to goal, and a few minutes later Craig was again up there. This time, he flashed his header disappointingly past. Queen's got forward again, and two minutes later they should have taken the lead. Cairney got clear on the right, beating left-back Brittain, and advanced on the box. With Canning making a fine run through the middle and unmarked, the path to goal was obvious, but the young midfielder delayed his pass too long, and when the ball did leave his right foot it was slid wide by a defender- albeit only just wide. The support were roused by this, but even more so by Craig's crude challenge on Bowers on the left touchline a minute on. The referee was right in handing out a booking only, but Bowers had been shaken up and, having had a hard game, went off for Dunn just after. Strange as it may seem, the game was speeding up, and incidents were flaring up even more quickly. Cue another booking, for McQuilken after he tugged Cairney back. Dobbie would continue to cause problems until replaced by former Spider John Gemmell in the 81st minute. Seven minutes before that, he rolled the ball into the net once it had been back-heeled into his path, but had already been caught offside. In the build-up, Mick Dunlop had made a badly mistimed tackle that possibly didn't even make contact with the player. Still, it warranted the booking that Mr. Nicholls surprisingly remembered to hand out despite letting play continue. Too bad he would go on to make a ridiculous corner-kick decision, giving Dumbarton the award even though the ball had clearly rebounded back off a home leg following Dunlop's tackle. And his linesman did the chocolate incinerator routine as usual. Queen's replaced David Weatherston with young Chris Colquhoun with three minutes to play, but he saw little of the ball as Dumbarton controlled much of the game late on. They couldn't breach our determined defence though, where Ronald and Agostini, for all their occasional awkwardness, had proven a strong pairing, reliable and quite prepared to thunder into the tackle when required. This was an acceptable point for Queen's, but whether it's a good one or not can't really be decided till after the Albion Rovers game on Tuesday. That's a game we simply have to win. Dumbarton: Stephen Grindlay, Craig Winter, Craig Brittain, Mark Canning, David Craig, Chris Hamilton, Ryan Borris, John Dillon (David McNaught 57), Stephen Dobbie (John Gemmell 81), Paul McQuilken, Chris Boyle. Substitutes not used: John Paul McKeever, Gary McDevitt, Peter Shaw. Booked: Craig, McQuilken. Queen's Park: David Crawford, Paul Cairney, Mick Dunlop, Paul Ronald, Damiano Agostini, Steven Canning, Stuart Kettlewell, Tony Quinn (Tommy Murray 46), Richard Bowers (Robert Dunn 69), David Weatherston (Chris Colquhoun 87), Mark Ferry. Booked: Kettlewell, Dunlop, Ronald, Murray. Referee: Stephen Nicholls. Attendance: 1,089. |