( Canning ) ( MacGregor )
Queen's boss John McCormack kept the same team that drew with Gretna last Saturday with John Gemmell up-front with fellow youngster Allan Dunning. Dave McPherson and his players must have expected a tough match, but a victory would have been anticipated by the fans. Queen's didn't start or indeed finish as a team of push-overs and the Greenock men faced one of their hardest challenges of the season so far.
Just like every other match this year, Queen's started brightly. Danny Ferry and Allan Dunning linked up well together down the right hand side of the field and the latter nearly set up Tony Quinn for an early goal. His volley was mis-judged, however, and the ball sailed wide. On the other wing, James Allan was causing problems for the Morton defence and harsh fouling seemed to be the only way to stop the liveliness of the ex-East Fife man.
John Gemmell, subbed last week, hoped to impress and his low free kick went under the wall, but straight at Craig Coyle, the Morton goalkeeper. He nearly broke his league duck 2 minutes later with another free-kick, but the 25 yard effort was dealt with superbly by Coyle.
Johnny Whelan looked to eliminate the strength of the Morton midfield and he set up Dunning who hit the ball wide of the target.
The attempts on goal were coming thick and fast for QP and there wasn't much in reply. In fact, Morton's only effort came from David MacGregor and his header didn't trouble Stewart. The Queen's goalkeeper was mostly a spectator in the first-half as Queen's looked likely to break the deadlock. The interval couldn't have come soon enough for Morton and the whistle suited them more that it did Queen's, the more dominant of the two sides.
It should be mentioned that the game did attract a big crowd - over 1700 - and Morton brought a fair portion of their fans with them to Glasgow. There was the usual banter between the fans and the slight piece of tape separating the fans called "segregation" prevented words turning to fists. Morton's choice of songs didn't please the Queen's fans though.
In the second half, Queen's tried to fire up the desire that nearly brought them a goal earlier on in the match.Tony Quinn and Steven Moffat both had shots that were charged down easily by the Morton defence, now becoming frantic in their approach. Queen's had to be aware of Morton's "route one" style that has brought them relative success this season. Early missed chances cost QP dearly when the two teams met at Cappielow in August.
The experienced David Hopkin, a life long Morton fan, was imposing himself more in the match and after Steven Fallon charged down a cross, he rattled the wood-work with a thunderous half-volley and fortunately the ball was cleared. Even though Morton showed signs of scoring, the Spiders didn't give up, and Gemmell had a shot deflected wide. The resulting corner saw Moffat rise to head the ball over the bar after a brief scramble in the Morton goal area.
Cowboy decided that Allan Dunning had played for long enough and he was replaced by Paddy Gallagher. The youngster did nothing to shame himself, but the match was wearing on and the manager obviously thought that Dunning was beginning to tire. Dave McPherson responded by bringing on Warren Hawke in place of Marco Maisano. It wasn't the substitute that gave Morton the lead on 70 minutes though but the unlikely candidate of David McGregor. He stooped well to hit a clean shot past Stewart and the blue end of the stand rose in ecstasy. The Queen's fans were inevitably left scratching their heads and asking themselves where they had seen this before.
McCormack threw on Ross Clarke and Brendan Crozier on to replace Tony Quinn and James Allan in an attempt to give Queen's one last spurt in the remaining 15 minutes. Sub Paddy Gallagher was jeered by the Morton fans when hetumbled in the box after he tried an ambitious overhead kick.
Suddenly, everyone tried to get in on the act for Queen's and Damiano Agostini smashed a shot at Coyle from an acute angle. Brendan Crozier, the most effective of QP subs, cracked an almost identical shot at Coyle and Queen's were given hope with a corner. As ever, Queen's did it the alternative way and John Gemmell nearly scored a picture-perfect overhead kick. Coyle seemed to be invincible, but that was until the 83rd minute.
An almighty stramash, with Arthur Montford looking on, culminated in Stephen Canning scrambling the ball in from a little over six yards. It was now the Queen's fans' time to celebrate and they did so in style, some choosing to run down to the wall at the foot of the stand(!). As the entire crowd was on the verge of a collective heart-attack, Queen's continued to pound the Morton defence. John Gemmell and Paddy Gallagher both had shots blocked and a resulting corner was somehow cleared.
The true moment of the match had John Gemmell miraculously foiled by Coyle. A stunning header was met with an even more stunning save. When the final whistle blew, the tall striker crumbled to the crowd, obviously drained after missing two chances at the end. Both efforts were flawless in execution and Coyle did well to pull off some majestic saves.
The Greenock side were lucky to come away from Hampden with anything and the Morton fans will certainly think twice in the future about making sly remarks concerning Queen's. If it wasn't for Coyle's heroics, QP would have taken a deserved win, but the Hoops must now prepare for the journey to East Stirling. A win has to be the only result and if Queen's want to progress, they have to win the bread and butter matches before they can think about beating teams such as East Fife and Peterhead.
Queen's Park : Stewart, Ferry, Canning, Moffat, Agostini, Fallon, Dunning ( Gallagher 67 ), Whelan, Gemmell, Quinn ( Clark 75 ), Allan ( Crozier 75 ).
Substitutes not used: White, Mitchell. Goal: Canning 83.
Morton: Coyle, Collins, Bottiglieri, MacGregor, Gaughan, M. Maisano ( Hawke 68 ), Cannie ( MacDonald 79 ), Hopkin, Williams, J. Maisano ( Bannerman 56 ), Uotinen. Substitutes not used: Smith, McKillop.
Goal: MacGregor 70.
Booked: Bannerman, Hawke, Hopkin, J.Maisano, M.Maisano, Uotinen.
Attendance: 1,779.
Referee: Eddie Mack.