| CLUB NEWS |
| 13 October News round-up There's not been a great deal happening down Somerville Drive, and with university taking up much of our time, well, OK that's a flimsy excuse, what I mean is I've been a lazy bugger not updating the site much. But something must have happened in the last ten days involving Queen's Park... Well, one or two things have. The U-19s were eliminated from the SFA Youth Cup at the hands of auld enemy Clyde on Friday; the manner, and margin, of the defeat being acutely disappointing as Clyde romped it 6-1. Guess who scored? Derek Carcary? Correct. They were almost meant to be playing Partick Thistle in the Glasgow Cup last Wednesday at Lesser Hampden - this tournament seemingly resurrected after a brief hiatus - but the game was called off; it should now take place this Wednesday at 7.30 pm. The Strollers did not play last week, but take on Albion Rovers on Tuesday night at Cliftonhill. The main points of interest will be the progress of the returning injured players Agostini, Carroll and Kettlewell. 4 October Queen's Park 0 Peterhead 2 - not good enough Queen's failed to maintain their recent run of results, but it's notable - need I re-iterate it - that the good ones were achieved away from home. For Peterhead, read Stirling Albion a few weeks ago - a relatively strong team, but not a notably fine one, yet they were able to put Queen's away with a degree of ease. Scoring two goals before half-time allowed Peterhead to rest on their laurels, and while Queen's Park controlled the second-half territorially, they were hampered by the loss of Ally Graham to injury and ran out of steam. The truth is that a worrying number of players just didn't play at all well - exceptions would include Scrimgour, Sinclair and Carcary. 27 September East Stirlingshire 1 Queen's Park 2 - we won, and, that's about it Queen's kept up their good record at Firs Park with this win, yet it's easy to have some misgivings about how the game panned out. Following McAuley's early strike, and the consequent dismissal of Shire goalkeeper Jon Connolly, the result was never in question, and a second from McAuley ten minutes after half-time rubber stamped the win. But we were laboured at times, allowing periods of the game to go by without any real activity, and even conceded a late goal due to over-relaxation. Again, we are clearly a much better team than Shire, but this superiority should have been emphasised with a greater margin of victory. OK, I hear you cry, I'm just being a moaning old bastard - we won, after all, and we could go joint second next week. 3 wins out of 7 - compared to the last two seasons, it's Championship, no, Champions League, form. 26 September East Stirlingshire vs. Queen's Park - away win, surely The perpetual injury worries at Queen's Park have eased slightly prior to this Saturday's game; David McCallum will make his comeback at left midfield and this should restore some balance to the side. Tuesday night's formation was not a success, albeit it's difficult to make a judgement on a system when it's tested against far better opposition, and Kenny Brannigan will probably fall back on the 3-5-2 option for tomorrow. But whatever way Queen's line up at Firs Park - Ferry in goal, Sinclair and Scrimgour up front, anything - we've still got to win. East Stirling's home record is best described as, well, hilarious; they've not won at home in 17 months. Even our own pathetic record at Hampden doesn't compare with this, though, strangely, they are actually unbeaten at home this season, having drawn with fellow dross outfits Montrose and Cowdenbeath so far. They're a very weak team, though their unofficial website goes out of its way to praise every one of their players with the vaguest of wordings - nothing can disguise their total ineptness over the last year however. Queen's won both of their matches there last season, though of course, to sum up the uncanny contrariness of the team we love, we lost both of our home games against Shire - and horrifically so. Defeat tomorrow can hardly be ruled out of hand, but with the quality scales tipped easily in Queen's's favour, a win is the least we can expect. 24 September Queen's Park 1 Livingston 3 Livingston were simply too good for Queen's in our Second Round League Cup tie, winning 3-1. Ross Clark capped a fine personal performance with a sweet finish late on; just reward for a hard effort from the Queen's players. But in truth it was no contest and the margin of victory should have been greater. 23 September Queen's Park vs. Livingston Tonight Queen's will face Livingston in the second round of the League Cup. After the stunning victory over Inverness just a few weeks ago, Livvie shouldn't take QP lightly, the Spiders usually saving their ultra-best form for the cup competitions. Queen's have put together a decent run of results and they are unbeaten in the last three, but an improvement will be needed after the sluggish performance against Montrose on Saturday. Livingston are not going into this game on the best of form though. Their home defeat against Kilmarnock was compounded with more misery after the discovery that centre-half Marvin Andrews will be out for some time with a dislocated shoulder. This should give "Big" Ally Graham more breathing space in the opponent's penalty area. On the Queen's injury front, Kenny Brannigan will probably still be without Damiano Agostini and Frankie Carroll. In all likelihood it is highly possible that Brannigan will stick with the same side that drew on Saturday. Tonight's game kicks off at 7.30pm so be on hand to give Queen's your support. You never know, we may see another upset (!) But let's not tempt fate, eh? 20 September Queen's Park 1 Montrose 1 - letdown Stephen McAuley grabbed his first goal for the club in Queen's sixth league game of the season but few others will have reason to recall this match with any warm feelings. A small crowd ( courtesy of the almost total lack of a travelling support ), a deterioration in performance from Queen's after a decent start, and some late missed chances meant for an unsatisfactory day. 19 September Queen's Park vs. Montrose At any other time we'd be anxiously anticipating what is usually the worst match of the season - but this time, Queen's are flying high after two away wins, travel to Firs Park to play the league's worst club next week, and so have an unmissable opportunity for full points in three consecutive games. And don't let it be said that this is over-zealous optimism - despite a lackadaisical performance in the second half last week, Queen's played some impressive football, deserved their win, and have the players capable of soundly beating the likes of Montrose. The problem is, these things rarely come about; they happen roughly as often as a sectarian-free weekend at Ibrox. Thus any win over Montrose tomorrow will be acceptable, but the application must be present throughout; a sense of lethargy has pervaded our most recent games against the Links Park side, but should the ghostly Hampden atmosphere be shrugged off, a win is well within Queen's Park's reach. Agostini, McCallum and Carroll are all in better shape injury-wise, but none of these three will start tomorrow's game. McCallum came through the majority of the Strollers' midweek draw at Gretna; Agostini and Carroll have both trained this week. With no players returning, the team line-up will be along similar lines to the side that defeated Cowdenbeath and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. None of the last eight league matches involving the two teams has gone Queen's Park way, with Montrose claiming the honours in five of these games. The last time we beat Montrose at Hampden was in the Challenge Cup in August 2000, 2-0; one division seperated the teams at that point. Our last league victory at home to the Gable Endies was nearly 4 years ago, on 2nd October 1999; 688 people saw two goals from then-leading scorer Mark Gallagher secure a 2-1 win; Queen's Park's ninth successive game without loss since day one of the campaign. Five more would follow before Berwick won comfortably, 4-1, at Hampden on 20th November. 13 September Cowdenbeath 0 Queen's Park 1 - glad to come back with a win While Queen's did not play at all badly at Central Park, the most pleasing feature of the day was the sound of the referee's final whistle. At times full of neat, flowing football, Queen's surrendered possession too easily at other points and could have paid against a team with more inventiveness than Cowdenbeath. Steven Canning's winner was a product of his right foot, perhaps the cleanest hitter of a ball in the Queen's team; this arrived after Ian Morris's dismissal for two yellow cards. Queen's were always in command and now have their sights set on a climb up the table. 12 September Harvey added to squad Former Airdrie, Raith Rovers and Manchester United player Paul Harvey has completed his signing for Queen's Park. Exactly when he was registered with the SFA I don't know but Kenny Brannigan confirmed today that he had joined. Harvey has masses of experience, is a skilful player and will augment an already well-blessed area of the team; midfield. He played as a trialist in the first league game of the season at Gretna, and was most recently at Airdrie United. He will be on the bench tomorrow: sadly Agostini, Carroll and McCallum won't even make it that far, all three still being injured, as is Stuart Kettlewell. McCallum should be the first of these to make a comeback, and with Agostini still out, Johnny Whelan has another opportunity to marshal the defence, a job he performed so well in Inverness. 11 September Cowdenbeath vs. Queen's Park After a two-week gap, Queen's return to the business of league football at Central Park on Saturday, and we will soon find out if their cup form can be maintained in the forthcoming league games. The next three are all distinctly winnable; after Cowdenbeath, it's Montrose at home and then a jaunt to Firs Park. For Queen's to stabilise their league position, and move up the table, 7 points out of 9 has to be a minimum target from these matches with rather more difficult fixtures to come. But Cowdenbeath should not be dismissed lightly: apart from the fact that Queen's Park have no reason to feel arrogant against any team, Cowden are still an unknown quantity to most at the club. Queen's haven't faced them since winning the league there in 2000, and their team from last season has undergone serious rebuilding. Having said that, their best player is a mainstay, 22 year-old striker Graeme Brown, coveted by a number of loftier clubs including Berwick Rangers, and one who Cowdenbeath have done well to hold on to. He has only scored once as yet, and in truth Cowdenbeath have failed to inspire so far; held to a goalless draw at Forthbank, they were demolished at home by Albion Rovers and nearly lost to East Stirling in their last game. Admittedly they comfortably beat a weak Montrose team, but are the sort of side Queen's Park must look to defeat; the team have demonstrated how capable they are against St. Mirren and Inverness, and were far from at full-strength in the latter game. The break from action will have helped Damiano Agostini to recover from injury; he should be involved again on Saturday. David McCallum may also be nearer match fitness, while Frankie Carroll, due to see a specialist, won't be back just yet. No need to remind most of you about Queen's Park's last game at Central Park, and I wasn't a fan at the time sadly, but let's go back over the facts of that day. Queen's led the table by two points, but with time drifting away trailed 1-0; until Danny Ferry's shot trickled past Ross Godfrey and put Queen's back in control of the championship. Frankie Carroll scored twice to clinch the title, meaning that Graeme Brown's reply and Berwick's 2-1 win over Montrose were immaterial. Queen's were champions! 3 September Inverness Caledonian Thistle 1 Queen's Park 2 I think the above says it all. 1 September Inverness Caledonian Thistle vs. Queen's Park - League Cup First Round It may well be a threadbare Queen's team that steps out at Caledonian Stadium tomorrow evening, but with memories of recent away cup exploits still fresh, there is at least one source of hope for the small number of fans who will be able to make it to Inverness for the game. Problem is, Inverness's cup record is even better. Already they've reached the semis of this season's Bell's Cup, and qualified for the same stage of the Scottish Cup last season, famously eliminating Celtic for the second time in four seasons. They've also won at Tynecastle and East End Park, and taken Aberdeen and Kilmarnock to replays, over the last few seasons. In short, another team may be liable to take Queen's, and the League Cup, lightly, but given recent history Inverness are unlikely to do so. Ally Graham and Steven Reilly are both back in contention for Queen's, but on the debit side Menelaws and Dunning seem unable to be released from work and so will miss the game. Richard Sinclair is still hopeful of being able to play. With the injury problems also not yet abating, KB faces an unenviable task in picking a team for the game. |