The latest player news - and this is not yet official - is that Craig Taggart, Richard Sinclair, Stuart Kettlewell, Ross Conlin and Andrew McGinty have signed for next season. It will come as a surprise to some that Craig Taggart seems set to stay on but Kenny Brannigan clearly has faith in his talents. Presumably McGinty will now be making the stepup to first team status but he is likely to be a fringe player at least initially.
30 May St. Mirren at Love Street on the opening day of the season
The Bell's Challenge Cup draw was made today and paired Queen's with St. Mirren. The tie will take place on 2nd August which, welcomingly, is a Saturday. Queen's have not played St. Mirren since New Year's Day 1975 when they won 3-0 at Love Street in a Second Division match, Paton scoring twice and McGill getting the other. The clubs have also met in just two cup-ties since the second world war, these being League Cup sectional matches in October 1946. The teams drew 2-2 at Hampden, and St. Mirren won 2-0 in Paisley.
The club have also confirmed more details as regards pre-season fixtures. Contrary to what I had wrongly suggested, Queen's will play Stranraer on 19th July, prior to their pre-season trip which will still take in that part of the world. Threave Rovers will be the opposition in Castle Douglas on 25th April before the squad ( and the hardcore fans ) take the ferry across to Northern Ireland where Glenavon will be played, at Mourneview Park in Lurgan, the following day. The match against Dundee United, provisionally scheduled for 12th July, has not been confirmed but probably will still happen, even if not on that date.
25 May Pre-season
Queen's are set to face Stranraer at Stair Park in a friendly match on Friday 25th July, before playing an Irish League club in Belfast on the Saturday or Sunday following. Full details are not yet available. Prior to this, Queen's will have played Dundee United at Hampden on 12th July and an away match against as yet unclarified opposition a week later.
Still no word on further departures from the playing staff, or on who exactly will be staying. It has however been rumoured that Steven Moffat could join up again with John McCormack at Morton, as well as James Allan.
The club have announced that their new kit sponsor is Diadora. Images of the new home and away shirts are available at the official website. The design of the home shirt thankfully does not represent too much of a departure, with one notable difference being the alterations to the badge: it now features the legend "Hampden Park, Centenary, 1903/04 - 2003/04. For me, that's a touch of class.
The club AGM has brought about the election of a new President, Mr. David Gordon. He replaces A. K. C. Harvey.
17 May Ferry, Fallon and Agostini rumours
Rumours are floating about suggesting that three more top Queen's players may be leaving in the near future. Danny Ferry could be moving to a second division club, with Agostini and Fallon awaiting offers from elsewhere before deciding whether or not to stay on at the club. We will keep you updated if more develops.
17 May More disappointing losses
It's expected that both Willie Martin and James Allan, two of Queen's better players this season, will be joining other clubs soon. Interest in Allan from Morton has long been mooted due to the McCormack connection, and a move to Cappielow is set to take place for the talented winger. Allan joined Queen's from East Fife last July and quickly established himself as a regular in the line-up thanks to his precious ability to take on defenders and beat them with trickery. He scored a total of seven goals in 34 starts and one from the bench, but he failed to appear for the last few games due to injury, his last game for the club being the defeat at Peterhead on 29th March. Whether he will be able to adjust to the step-up of a level to the Second Division remains to be seen but playing under John McCormack should give him a fine chance of doing so.
The departure of Willie Martin, like that of Jamie White, could well be to Elgin City and it would be even more startling than White's transfer. Martin must be one of the hardest-working attackers in the country and though he was frustratingly under-used by his coaches at Queen's Park - with fitness also a common problem - he was often able to make a genuine impact. If Martin does sign up for Elgin one must assume that the lure of payment for playing was just too strong as it's hard to believe Kenny Brannigan would have wanted rid of such a useful player. So to sum up, it seems that seven players have left, or will definitely be leaving, the club: however only the goings of Mitchell, Gemmell and White have been clarified by the club.
16 May Further exits
The club have confirmed the release of Tony Mitchell, who was dropped after a disastrous performance at Hamilton in the Scottish Cup and made just one further appearance for the team. The Evening Times has reported two further players being let go, namely Chris Fisher and Steven Canning. While Fisher's release was widely expected after just one start all season, it's a little bit of a shock to see Canning leave and it suggests that Kenny Brannigan is prepared to be ruthless in order to sweep out those from the squad he believes are not up to the challenges ahead. Stevie struggled to regain his best form after returning from injury around the turn of the year and clearly did not do enough to convince Kenny Brannigan that his undoubted talents would come to fruition. It is of course possible, though, that there were other factors at work in his leaving and hopefully the club will shortly confirm themselves that he and Fisher have both gone. It would be nice to think that that would be the last of the departures and that we could turn our attentions to new arrivals, but such hopes are often in vain for Queen's Park fans. New faces are a certainty however.
15 May Player exodus begins
The first two departures from Hampden this summer have occurred. As expected, John Gemmell will very shortly finalise a move to Partick Thistle who have taken a chance on his potential. John scored 13 goals this season to add to the three he got last term. More surprisingly, James White has signed for Elgin City as David Robertson's first capture for the club. The uncompromising defender, 23, was never a regular in his two seasons at Queen's and made a total of 13 starts for the team. His last game, against East Fife on Saturday, was one of his best as he played a large part in Queen's holding out for so long when under severe second half pressure. Whether or not Kenny Brannigan was keen for White to leave or not is unclear; but I had suspected that he would be one of the players allowed to depart the club, so it's quite possible.