| Queen's Park |
| Elgin City |
| 3 |
| 0 |
| (Weatherston, Quinn, Ferry) |
| Don't let the scoreline fool you. This game was nowhere near as close as the three-goal margin suggests; indeed much of the second half was spent discussing whether Queen's should in fact be 4, or 5, or 10, or, etc. ahead, when for much of that time it was only 1-0. Elgin looked really poor, and Queen's had stacks of chances, but took their time to really kill the game off. That doesn't matter though, and so for the second home game in a row we won really easily to keep track with the rest of the league. Billy Stark has had to contend with a lot of injuries recently, so he must have been chuffed to be able to put out what was more or less a full-strength side; minus only Paul Ronald. Ronald may not have played in any case, since Richard Bowers had scored a belter against Arbroath and Weatherston was back, and the Elgin defence would prove unable to cope with the sharpness of those two. Only four minutes had gone when Queen's took the lead with an outstanding goal. David Weatherston gathered a ball that had run beyond the slack Elgin defence, and he took it on the bounce to loft a soaring lob which ducked just under the bar. Can this man do no wrong? Well, he can and did, but who cares when he scores goals as beautiful as this? From what I've written so far you may have imagined that Elgin simply weren't in this at any stage. That's almost true in fact, but strangely they did throw up a few attempts in what was an open game. After 6 minutes, Dickson rattled the bar from the edge of the area to give Queen's a warning. We didn't really need it though, as we ripped through Elgin time and time again. In the 10th minute Kettlewell slipped the ball to Bowers, who found himself with only Renton to beat, but his shot was struck tamely at the keeper. Unbelievably, we went through again immediately, and now Kettlewell just had to keep his cool, but he pushed his shot into the side-netting. It's rare to have 2 chances in a row like that and to miss both was a little worrying. Queen's continued to pummel the Elgin goal, and Weatherston managed to get past Renton in the 19th minute only for his shot to lack power. Then Reilly whacked a drive off a defender following a Queen's corner, and a minute later Cairns dealt fairly comfortably with Mackay's free kick. A swirling cross from Ferry was met superbly by Weatherston after 38 minutes, but the goalkeeper was equal to it. An Elgin corner then caused some confusion in the Queen's area, but Paton slid in to block, and the ball was shepherded back to Mark Cairns. The pattern ran on into the second half. Dunlop got a head on Paton's free-kick 5 minutes after the whistle, but couldn't direct it on to the target, and the Queen's fans began to get edgy about their team's inability to extend the lead. Inevitably, Elgin came close to equalising, when after an hour Sinclair missed a tackle on the edge of the box, but Cairns blocked the effort and the follow-up was cleared off the line. Queen's responded quickly to that shock, and Steven Canning, introduced a few minutes before, should have scored but instead fired well over after being sent through the middle. Then Ferry's shot twisted narrowly beyond the post, scant reward for fine build-up by Queen's. We couldn't be denied much longer though, and Elgin's goal fell in the 66th minute. Canning curled a cross to the far post from the left of the area, and with Renton scrambling desperately to scoop it away, Quinn got his body in the right place to bundle the ball over the line. Queen's were well on the way but that didn't prevent a stream of abuse being hurled at the referee after he booked Weatherston for diving a few minutes later. Davie had appeared to have been held back in the area- referee Brown had actually played advantage following a definite tug on him as he moved in from the touchline- and there was no reason for the referee to assume he had dived. Perhaps still flustered, Weatherston missed the easiest of chances a couple of minutes later, winning the ball from Renton's scuffed clearance and going past the keeper only to send his shot weakly back into Renton's arms. To miss so many chances would usually spell death but Elgin were so lacking in confidence and will that another opportunity was always ready to present itself to Queen's. And the next one, with 10 minutes left, resulted in the final goal. It wasn't even well-taken, Mark Ferry scooping the ball up awkwardly from Canning's cross, but nonetheless it was too high- at four feet- for Renton who for some reason had already hit the deck. At least the scoreline now made the win look as comfortable as it had been, mostly. A very encouraging performance then from Queen's, who possessed reserves of energy and enthusiasm that Elgin ultimately couldn't compete with. Reports had suggested that they were unlucky to lose their first 10 games of the season, but based on what we saw yesterday they CERTAINLY weren't; they really are the new Shire, except that Queen's have a good record against Elgin (no defeats in 7 games now). We look well-placed to mount a challenge now and should savour the chance to take revenge on Satan's XI next week. Will they be the latest to ship 3 goals to a supercharged Queen's team? The fate of all that is good and true in this world hangs on next week's result... Queen's Park: Mark Cairns, Paul Paton, Mick Dunlop, Steven Reilly, Richard Sinclair, Alan Trouten, Stuart Kettlewell, Tony Quinn, Richard Bowers (Steven Canning 59), David Weatherston (Tommy Murray 89), Mark Ferry (Paul Cairney 89). Substitutes not used: Damiano Agostini, David Crawford. Booked: Dunlop, Weatherston. Goals: Weatherston 4, Quinn 66, Ferry 80. Elgin City: Keiron Renton, Paul Kaczan, Allan Dempsie, Stewart Easton (Martin Charlesworth 73), Hugh Dickson, David Hind, Craig Campbell, Adam Moffat (D. Docherty 53), Martin Johnston, Chris Gardiner (Chris Finnegan 58), Steven Mackay. Substitutes not used: Bazie, Brewin. Booked: Dempsie, Easton, Finnegan, Kaczan, Moffat. Referee: Colin Brown. Attendance: 489. |