| Queen's Park |
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| Cowdenbeath |
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| On 13 September Queen's Park beat Cowdenbeath 1-0 at Central Park to move into fourth position in the Third Division. 10 days prior to that they had eliminated Inverness from the League Cup. Cowdenbeath were yet to win a home game and occupied a lower-half spot. Nearly two months on, we've won one more game, have dropped to eighth place, while Cowdenbeath have beaten the league leaders and remain unbeaten away. Where did it all go wrong / right? Would today provide any more clues? Well the answer was not really, as if anything Queen's were the better team in a match which never caught fire. Devoid of any spontaneity in their play, Queen's persevered with aerial delivery and simple passing, which, clearly not the best tools to break down the visiting defence, were all we had. To be fair to the team, there was an obvious desire to win with urgency being shown in the latter stages in the attempt to grab a goal. In that time, Steven Canning committed possibly the worst miss we've churned out this season and another day bereft of goals was all we had to dwell on. Without Steven Reilly because of suspension, Kenny Brannigan had the chance to tinker with what had been a sluggish midfield, and brought back Stuart Kettlewell and Ross Clark, who had both come off the bench in the Gretna defeat. Paddy Gallagher dropped to sub, and Steven Moffat played his first game at left back since Central Park in September, replacing John Thompson. McCallum, Carroll and Harvey were all ruled out through injury, but Harvey is close to fitness again, and there was an encouraging sign before kick-off when Tony Quinn could be seen training on the Hampden turf. The midfielder hasn't played for nearly a year due to two leg breaks, but isn't far away from a comeback. Neither team could gain the upper hand in the opening parts, and it was obvious that the tactic of putting Ally Graham first by playing high balls up to him had not exactly withered and died. But the big man is undeserving of his inexplicable number of critics and is a far more subtle footballer than the majority of target men. Few Queen's players in recent years have rivalled him for dead-ball prowess and he almost scored with one such effort in 18 minutes, bending a left-foot strike round the wall and past a static Carlin but also past the post. Queen's kept up the momentum for a short time and McAuley almost took advantage of an awkward long ball for the Cowdenbeath defence, challenging the goalkeeper who was able to clear. Cowden responded four minutes later with a neat cross from McInally's left foot which Ritchie glanced wide. Queen's had clearly learned one lesson from recent games: get the ball down the flanks to find the strikers with the cross ball. The decision to play Moffat on the left was paying off with his accurate delivery posing problems on a couple of occasions, and Danny Ferry was also playing a more prominent part. Kettlewell had a shot charged down in the 28th minute, and from the clearance, Richard Sinclair swiped at the ball, missed and allowed Shields to advance on goal. With the home defence caught out, Shields tried to place the ball carefully in at the far corner but Scrimgour managed to block the shot, proving again his reliability in goal. Richard Sinclair then had to come off, appearing to be in some discomfort; John Thompson came on, taking Moffat's left side berth while Steven went into the middle. Given how comfortable Moffat had looked on the left, it was an unwelcome switch and certainly unbalanced the team a little. Ross Clark entered the book 7 minutes from the break, bizarrely so as it was Moffat who seemed to have exerted more of a challenge on Cowden striker Graeme Brown; probably it wasn't a foul in any case. And it what was an all-too predictable first half, some variation courtesy of Graham - good control followed by a nice lay-off - allowed Kettlewell to drive in a shot which Carlin handled easily. In fact that would be the last piece of action for quite some time, as another variation on the 'Hampden hoodoo' theory struck again - injuries to the match officials. A delay of around fifteen minutes over the normal half-time length was followed by the same trio trooping out for the second half, as whatever treatment meted out to assistant Martin Doran seemed to have done the trick; on the injury at least. Such a long break allowed plenty of time for Queen's to ponder how best to play the second half and they certainly came out with extra impetus, attacking Cowdenbeath but not creating much in front of goal. Thompson's corner which Carlin pawed away from under the bar was the closest we'd come for a while. Cowdenbeath took off Graeme Brown in 56 minutes, and the young striker showed his disgust by flinging his shirt on the ground outside the tunnel; obviously the fame of an appearance on 'Offside' last Monday has gone to his head. Stuart Kettlewell then endured a clash of heads with Winter, meaning he had to exit the scene for a while before coming back out with a bandaged head, Ross Clark-style. The second half was providing little entertainment but as expected matters did improve for the final twenty minutes of the game. A crashing drive from Winter nearly caught out Scrimgour who tipped over, and in the 71st minute Steven Fallon ( who else? ) strode forward through the centre from deep in the Cowdenbeath half before firing in a bouncing shot which Carlin fumbled; but no-one was sharp enough to gather the rebound. As the game opened up, Shields lashed over after a tussle on the edge of the box, followed by a long-range volley from Danny Ferry ( coming into his own in the closing stages ) which Carlin was surprised at having to deal with. Victory seemed possible and Kenny Brannigan introduced the pace of Carcary for McAuley in a last throw to break them down. With Carcary, it seems anything is possible although he needed better service than Queen's could achieve for the ten minutes he was on. Whelan and Moffat both collected yellow cards subsequently, firstly for one foul too many and secondly for a tug on a Cowden striker. Whelan came off just after with the matchwinner last time we played Cowdenbeath, Steven Canning, coming on. Queen's continued to press but lacked the invention to forge chances, and a draw seemed certain. However, at the death, the game should have been won when Canning ballooned the ball over as Carlin looked on, helpless. The chance arrived through Ferry's cross from the right which Graham harried Carlin into missing; Graham's touch fell for Canning, who had time to bring the bouncing ball under control but instead panicked and blasted it high. No matter that a draw was the fairer result; this chance should have been taken and it's just indicative of the rut Queen's find themselves in right now. The next two games couldn't be more unforgiving and the timing of next week's fixture is nothing but a sick joke. However many show up, the incentive has to be, as it was at Inverness, being one of the few to witness a fantastic win. Still, at least if we do win, we'll know it couldn't have happened to a nicer club. Queen's Park: Derek Scrimgour, Danny Ferry, Steven Moffat, Richard Sinclair ( John Thompson 32 ), Damiano Agostini, Steven Fallon, Ross Clark, Stuart Kettlewell, Ally Graham, Jonny Whelan ( Steven Canning 86 ), Stephen McAuley ( Derek Carcary 80 ). Substitutes not used: Paddy Gallagher, David Crawford. Booked: Clark, Whelan, Moffat. Cowdenbeath: Andy Carlin, Calvin Shand, David McInally, Bryan Gilfillan, John McKeown, Innes Ritchie, Gary Fusco ( Steven Stewart 67 ), Craig Winter, Graeme Brown ( John Fallon 56 ), Dene Shields ( Iain Mauchlen 83 ), David Mowat. Substitutes not used: Liam Buchanan, Allan Fleming. Booked: Mauchlen. Referee: J. Downie. Attendance: 554. |