( Adam )
Several players were doubtful before kick-off, but the comforting news on arrival at the ground was that three of those, Ferry, Whelan, and Clark, had made the starting lineup. Less of a comfort was the realisation that the number of fans in the home sections seemed smaller than normal: I will not expand on the reasons, I am sure you can guess them for yourself, but it saddened me a little. The crowd figure was however strongly boosted by the presence of a large Ton following; but their situating in the South East Stand did little for the atmosphere and certainly took away some of the intimacy that had been there on their last visit to Hampden.
With Damiano Agostini out thanks to a virus, Richard Sinclair slotted into the back three, and Ross Clark shifted out wide to take his place on the right. Stuart Kettlewell came in for his full debut, Kenny Brannigan understandably rating this youngster highly. And last but most importantly, Tony Mitchell returned to the eleven in place of the otherwise engaged Cairns. And so the teams kicked off, with Queen's unusually shooting towards the Mount Florida end in the first half.
Mitchell found himself being tested within seconds as a hopeful chip from 40 yards dipped just over his crossbar, and he would look a little nervous in the opening stages before gaining in composure and confidence. He earned a narrow escape in seven minutes, when White was forced to clear after Mitchell had spilt Cannie's low ball across the six yard box.
One thing was obvious throughout the game: namely that Morton are much less of a threat without the predatory instincts of Alex Williams, and while Phil Cannie was a handful for Queen's with his height and presence, Morton failed to create much in the way of chances throughout. The partnership of Allan and Gemmell in the home attack also found it hard to make real headway: Allan's intelligent through ball in 9 minutes to Gemmell gave John a chance to pressurise Morton, but he could only send the ball trundling across goal from the right side of the box. Three minutes later, Miller's deep cross was headed over by Gaughan after he ducked low to get on the end of the ball.
In the 18th minute came the moment which could resurrect the Queen's Park career of Tony Mitchell. He had found little to do so far, but reacted smartly to dash from his line and block Marco Maisano's attempt after a brilliant through ball had put the Australian in the clear. A real fillip to the confidence of the much-maligned goalkeeper.
After 27 minutes, Jamie White, over eager in the challenge, collected a yellow card for a rather stupid tackle on John Maisano. Cannie then cut inside sharply and shot powerfully from the edge of the area, and Mitchell was forced to save, though he only gained full control at the second attempt.
New-found set piece taker David McCallum caused some consternation in the 32nd minute, curling in a free-kick which came off a Morton back for a corner, and then floating in a tempting inswinger which Coyle needed two bites of to make his. In fact, Queen's were definitely to finish the first half as the stronger of the two teams as they took greater control in the middle of the park.
James Allan delivered a cross from deep on the right for Gemmell to head over the crossbar, and Queen's quickly followed this up with a Whelan double effort after Kettlewell's pass. First his shot from the edge of the box was blocked, and then his attempted lob took a deflection. Queen's were certainly beginning to promise greater things.
Miller chipped high as Morton looked to hit on the counter-attack, but they were rapidly forced back into their own half again. Allan hit a genuinely delighful cross from the left for Gemmell to get on the end of, but it agonisingly fell just beyond the striker. Perhaps we should really be committing more men into the area to give James Allan more than just one head to aim at, as his crossing can be very accurate at times but often there just aren't enough players ready to take advantage.
After another corner in the 43rd minute, White turned and played a low strike into the arms of Coyle, and Kettlewell did much the same just afterwards after having the enterprise to come through from midfield on his own. There was certainly a fair old scrap going on in that central area, with the Maisano brothers as tenacious as ever, not that Johnny Whelan is ever likely to be left behind in the strong tackle stakes.
The first half display from Queen's had been satisfactory, and while they still had to look from more from the wide areas and better support from Whelan and Clark, there was something there for Kenny Brannigan to urge his players to build on.
Sadly, cometh the hour, cometh the against-the-run-of-play-Morton-goal-against-Queen's Park. Nobody could have been all that stunned when Adam let fly from 25 yards six minutes after the break and found the right hand corner of Mitchell's net, but the Queen's players should not have let this goal allow their performance to slip. After all, we had come from behind to gain fully-deserved points against Morton twice already this season.
But the spirit we showed on those occasions, and the competitiveness of our first-half display, would be sadly lacking during the remainder of a frustrating second half. For a time we looked as if we could come back into it, but the morale of the players sank as Morton held on.
This was one of the poorest second halves of the season in fact: Morton too looked unlikely to score again, and their overall play had scarcely improved after their fine goal. They face an uphill struggle to gain promotion in the final part of the season if they play like this.
After 62 minutes Paddy Gallagher replaced Whelan, and twelve minutes later Kettlewell, the stand-out player for Queen's had to leave the field after a collision with Adam. In the same tussle for possession, Fallon was booked rather softly.
Queen's subsequently had two reasons to curse the refereeing performance. First James Allan was caught in the eye by the flailing arm of Graeme Dale, but none of the officials saw any wrongdoing. Four minutes later, and Queen's fading hopes of a comeback were all but extinguished when White was penalised for a tackle from behind around 20 yards from his own goal. It had seemed obvious that White had played, and taken, the ball cleanly, and the applause he was given by the home fans on his leaving the pitch was testimony to their opinion of the referee's decision. I hate to make an issue of it, but it is all too common for Queen's to be the victims of incompetent refereeing.