| East Stirlingshire |
| 1 |
| Queen's Park |
| 2 |
| ( Ure ) |
| ( McAuley 2 ) |
| We're only human after all ( most of us, anyway ). Today's win should have spawned the feelgood factor among Queen's Park's supporters, yet the general air was one of slight discontent with a performance best described as functional. We were always going to win, and perhaps that's the problem; in one sense it was a no-win situation for us today, being up against what is one of the worst teams Scottish football has ever seen. Queen's should have won by more goals, undoubtedly, but they did win, and steady, if slow, progress appears to be being made under Kenny Brannigan. With McCallum and Canning starting out on the wings, and Harvey in midfield, the coach's aim was plausibly to out-pass and out-think Shire. Not that things got off to the prettiest of starts; Queen's plodded their way through most of the first ten minutes, with Richard Sinclair booked for a crunching tackle on Chris Baldwin. But soon our greater class began to tell. An Ally Graham free-kick bent gently round the wall and caused a deathly hush to descend on the ground as it fell narrowly wide. A few minutes on and it was 1-0. McAuley pounced on Reilly's sure pass and charged through on goal, getting to within 10 yards of goal before ramming the ball home at the far corner. Great finishing from McAuley, but there were legitimate suspicions of offside, and home goalkeeper Connolly took matters too far, pouring abuse on the idle linesman. That he was sent-off as a result seemed to encapsulate all of Shire's woes in the one incident. Substitute goalkeeper Todd was needed, and Queen's could hardly be in a more enviable position after only 12 minutes of the game. That we failed to build on this advantage for the remainder of the half was unsurprising, but there was only one team in the match. Reilly and Moffat both had attempts go wide, and Paul Harvey's brilliantly rising shot only just cleared the crossbar in the 21st minute. Shire forced their way back into things, but it was a gift from the Queen's defence that almost had them level. Moffat opted to leave a loose ball to Derek Scrimgour, who was not on his wavelength at all; Rodden stole in, and had Scrimgour not blocked the shot superbly a goal was certain. At first I thought it had gone in - some match reporter this one. Queen's were underperforming, frankly, but still conjuring up chances for themselves. McAuley almost grabbed a second when his sliding shot bounced off the near post following a fine pass from McCallum, and a Graham volley went high after Harvey's lofted corner-kick. So nothing sparkling, but with one goal in the bag the game merely had to be put under lock and key in the second half. Knowing that Shire were there for the taking, Queen's roared into the second half looking likely to score. Canning had a looping header dip past the post, McAuley's tenacity almost got him a second in the 52nd minute, but his persistence was rewarded two minutes later. Almost exactly like his first, but at the other end and from the other side of the pitch, McAuley broke away and slotted the ball in leaving a second Shire keeper floundering. We could relax and enjoy the last 35 minutes. Unfortunately at times it seemed the players thought the same thing. Queen's weren't exactly urgent to score a third, and became a little wasteful in their play. A steady flow of efforts kept coming though. McAuley was unlucky not to score when his cracking volley bounced off the surface and was clawed over by Todd, and the goalkeeper was inspired again when tipping over Graham's unopposed header. Then Whelan, on as a substitute, should have scored, but seemed startled to have so much space and Todd foiled Queen's once more. Ross Clark, somewhat anonymous, came off for Menelaws and David McCallum's first start for some weeks ended with Paddy Gallagher taking his place. The changes didn't pep up Queen's and in fact we probably now had our worst spell of the game, as if it really mattered. But with Shire absolutely toothless, another couple of goals could have been added to the tally in the last 10 minutes. Another Graham header was expertly pawed clear, and Richard Sinclair should have buried his own aerial smash with two minutes left, putting it beyond the post. That Shire should now score was crazy, but it did happen. With one of their handful of opportunities worth mentioning, Ure latched on to a long ball over the top to lob past Scrimgour, with Whelan at fault due to his failure to judge the flight of the ball. The unthinkable flickered through our minds briefly, but the Queen's players didn't seem too rattled and played out time calmly enough. We still make heavy weather of putting away lesser opponents, but this was a far easier win than the final score suggests, and second place is now very much within our sights. In fact, just like the Livingston match, it's difficult to assess the impact of this game on where we stand at present. Probably best just to shut up then and look forward to becoming the next team to give Peterhead a doing. East Stirlingshire: Jon Connolly, Gary McCulloch, Graeme McLaren, Dougie Polwart ( Robert Hare 70 ), Kevin McCann, Graham McGhee, David Ormiston, Sean McAuley, Stuart Kelly, Paul Rodden ( Derek Ure 71 ), Chris Baldwin ( Chris Todd 13 ). Booked: McCulloch. Sent-off: Connolly ( foul and abusive language ). Goal: Derek Ure 89. Queen's Park: Derek Scrimgour, Steven Canning, David McCallum ( Paddy Gallagher 70 ), Steven Moffat ( Jonny Whelan 63 ), Richard Sinclair, Steven Fallon, Ross Clark ( David Menelaws 70 ), Paul Harvey, Ally Graham, Steven Reilly, Stephen McAuley. Substitutes not used: Danny Ferry, Paddy Gallagher, Brian McCue. Booked: Sinclair. Goals: Stephen McAuley 12, 54. Referee: Craig Mackay. Attendance: 281. |