Hamilton will visit Hampden on Saturday, earning the right to play Queen's after defeating East Fife in a dramatic replay at Bayview this evening. Accies trailed 2-1 going into the last minute, having been ahead through McPhee, before Herkes, then Graham with just two minutes to go, seemingly gave East Fife the win. But Callaghan converted a last-ditch penalty, and Hamilton won 5-3 on penalties after a goalless extra period.
Bad news on Steven Moffat: the influential centre-back could well be out for a couple of months, after sustaining an ankle injury on Saturday. Given how the defence fell apart in his absence against East Stirling, this is a serious blow, but we are very unlikely to see Kenny Brannigan step into the gap at any stage. The new coach has re-iterated that he has no intention of picking himself for the first team.
It would appear that John Gallagher has been released by the club. The full-back was signed from East Fife in May, having accumulated much experience in his long career. However, despite 15 starts and 2 sub appearances, the move was not really a success, with John appearing past his best, and he lost his regular place several weeks ago. He was booked 5 times, sent-off against Forfar at Station Park in the Bell's Cup, and had his final outing in the defeat by Gretna on 11 January.
19 Jan McCormack intrigue
According to yesterday's match programme ( and it seems most surprising this was actually sanctioned to be printed ) Kenny Brannigan was being put forward since early this season by a faction within the club to take over from Cowboy. Apparently, McCormack was aware of these rumours and approached the board to clarify his position. Clearly, the desire of some was not acted upon; but surely if McCormack had been shown the door, even with the team not getting enough points on the board, fans would have been extremely unhappy with this decision. Also, it begs the question: if Brannigan was such a favourite of some, why did it take so long to appoint him? The suspicion must be that the commitee were not unanimously behind appointing Brannigan, but those not particularly keen were presumably won over. In any case, there could be some interesting times when the commitee come up for re-election this summer.
19 Jan Goalscorer correction
Apologies for an error made yesterday: we had East Stirling's second goal down as being scored by Gerry Boyle; however, on investigation we have discovered that it was actually Jordan Leishman who headed home a Boyle cross, not Boyle converting a MacKay pass. This goal was probably the turning point of the match, allowing Shire real hope and laying the foundations for their frankly superb victory.
18 Jan Queen's Park 3 East Stirlingshire 4 - how could we have lost?
For the second time this season, East Stirlingshire won a football match. And, again for the second time, it happened at Hampden. A shocking result for Queen's Park, even without taking into account the pattern of the match. Once you do, horryfying seems the more apt term. Two goals from John Gemmell and one from James Allan looked to have made the game safe at half-time, despite a fine goal by Kerr and some occasionally lacklustre defensive work. Queen's had at times seemed capable of scoring at will against an effectively non-existent Shire defence: the bottom club looking one of the worst teams to have played in Scotland for many a year. As far as they are concerned, their second half comeback was of epic proportions, and undoubtedly it goes down as their best performance of the season. The alarm bells were ringing when Boyle pulled a goal back from MacKay's cross, the building was being evacuated as McAuley blasted home from the edge of the area, and the blaze was sweeping through everything in its path as Kerr curled a free-kick high into the net with 5 minutes left. Whether Kenny Brannigan will be the man to extinguish the flames will no doubt be a matter for roaring debate amongst all Queen's Park supporters, who were left simply stunned at the final whistle.
Willie Martin's goal against Albion Rovers in the Scottish Cup has been nominated as one of the six possible goals of rounds one and two. Martin's fine run and finish sealed Queen's Park's place in the third round, sparking indescribable scenes amongst the travelling fans.
Contrary to what had been stated by the club, Davie Hunter was in the technical area for the match against East Stirlingshire. It had been earlier said that he had departed along with Paul Martin, but perhaps he is simply remaining short-term to assist Kenny Brannigan. Martin was also at the game, though merely as a spectator.
More tomorrow on revelations made in the Queen's Park match programme about conspiracies to remove John McCormack while he was still in charge.
17 Jan Queen's Park v. East Stirlingshire - a winning start necessary
Kenny Brannigan takes charge of Queen's for the first time tomorrow, against a team whose only win this season came at Hampden Park in the league, bottom-of-the-table East Stirling. However, since then Queen's have comfortably beaten the Falkirk side - ironically in John McCormack's final match - and will start tomorrow's game expected to do the same again. The players should be buoyed by the arrival of their new coach, but then some may also be unhappy at Paul Martin's and Davie Hunter's exits. Ability alone should be enough to see off the Shire, in truth, even though they have signed a trio of players prior to this game - Patrick Clark, Mark Lukowiecki and Scott Allison. Hardly known names, but they are crying out for new faces to lend a spark to their season.
Kenny Brannigan's first team sheet may include the name of Richard Sinclair, who is back after illness and could replace Gordon Lappin, his stand-in on Tuesday night. You would not expect Kenny to change things around too much initially, but he will have his own ideas and will after a time wish to put these into practice, once he has been able to assess the playing staff.
Some players will undoubtedly go - there must be doubts over the likes of Craig Taggart, Brendan Crozier, John Gallagher and Karl Lejman especially - and he is reportedly keen to import some new faces also. With the transfer window open for a further two weeks, we could well see some arrivals shortly. Let's hope that none of these would be to the detriment of perfectly deserving players who are currently heavily involved.
Click for further January 2003 news