| East Stirlingshire |
| 1 |
| ( Diack ) |
| Queen's Park |
| 3 |
| ( Ferry, Weatherston, Harvey ) |
| On paper, Queen's Park had one of the easiest ties in the CIS Cup 1st Round, but we all knew that in reality it could have ended up being a rather nasty banana skin. As it was, Queen's outplayed their opponents in the first half taking a deserved 3-0 half-time lead, and holding on in the second half to win 3-1. In the first ten minutes or so of the game however, Shire seemed quite lively, and it looked like we might have a few problems. As early as five minutes into the game, Shire won themselves a free-kick on the edge of the QP box. Ally Graham looked like he was going to hit it, but instead left it to another ex-Queens man Paul Tyrrell, whose shot was comfortably saved by Crawford. With 10 minutes played, David Weatherston tried to create Queens' first real chance after charging down a defender's clearance. However, as he tried to run in on goal he was blatantly held back by a defender, with the referee signalling "advantage". Quite what the advantage was supposed to be only Mr Thomson can tell us, because David had now been closed down by two defenders. He did manage to get a cross away, but couldn't put it quite into the path of his strike-partner Jonny Whelan. Ten minutes later, Queen's looked as if they might take the lead with Scott Livingstone slicing John Weir's cross, and seeming to go dangerously near his own goal. He missed, however, and Queen's got the corner. Paul Harvey played the corner to the front post, where Tony Quinn got up to flick the ball on. David Weatherston was waiting in the middle, and got his head to it, but sadly all he could do was touch the ball onto the cross bar and over. Two minutes later however and Queens took the lead. There was a scramble in the box, chaos in fact, and both sets of players scrapped for the ball. Shouts for "penalty" as John Weir fell, and "hand ball" a couple of times were silenced once Mark Ferry found posession and expertly ran round to the left hand side of the goal before slipping the ball past Jackson and into the net. With 25 minutes on the clock, Queen's nearly got a spectacular second after keeper Jackson missed a cross. The ball fell to Paul Harvey on the edge of the area, and he wasted no time in launching a chip towards the keeper's top-right corner. The ball looked to be dipping in, but to the goalie's credit he managed to get back to tip the ball over the bar. On the half-hour mark, Shire looked like they might pick up their first booking of the match when Derek Ure left his foot in on Ross Clark after the ball was away, but Craig Thomson deemed that only a free kick was called for. Two minutes later though and it was 2-0 Queens. A free kick from the right was flicked on in the box by Tony Quinn, and David Weatherston ran onto the ball. Clearly having studied Stuart Kettlewell's finish carefully on Satuday, David volleyed the ball over the Shire keeper and into the net - a well taken goal, and his first at first-team level for Queens. A minute later, and with Shire all over the place, it was nearly three. Jonny Whelan chased a ball into the box, watched by defender MacKay. Jackson also came off his line to try and block the ball, but MacKay got there first to clear the ball, only to end up in a heap, injured, on the six-yard line.. The Shire number four managed to return to the action a minute or two later, but had to be withdrawn at half time, with Brian Gordon replacing him. Before that however there was still 8 minutes of the second half to go, and first Derek Ure had a chance after a corner had been cleared, but his powerful shot flew wide. Five minutes later Tony Quinn had a long range shot, but it too missed the target. Then, up the other end, Ally Graham got his head to a cross, but could only head over. With two minutes of the half remaining, Richard Sinclair became the first casualty of the referee's notebook. Having tracked Rovers reject Iain Diack down the QP right, Richard went in for the ball, but mistimed it and took the man. There could be no complaints about the yellow card. Queens were still trying to pile on the pressure and wrap the game up before half-time, and Ross Clark went on a 50 yard run, only to see his shot saved. Mark Ferry then had a good long range shot which was heading for the bottom corner, but the keeper got down well to tip the ball round the post. The resulting corner was cleared, but Steven Reilly was there and tried to play the ball back in. Before he could do so however, Stevie was upended by Steven Blair, who managed to escape a booking for the challenge. Any anger at the referee's lack of action paled into insignificance when Paul Harvey stepped up to take the free kick. Paul struck the ball with uncharacteristic pace and pinpoint accuracy, and Derek Jackson was left helpless as the ball flew into his top-left corner. A brilliant strike, and a 3-0 lead for Queens at half time. There had been talk among some of us at half time of the possibility of us getting 5 or 6, such was the gulf by the end of the first half, and we judged from the start of the second half that we weren't going to be disappointed. Almost straight from the restart Jonny Whelan pressurised Oates into conceeding a corner, but sadly this one came to nothing. A few mintues later, David Weatherston was put up in the air over on the right, but John Weir couldn't get on the end of Harvey's free kick. A minute later it was Shire's turn to have a free kick, but DC had an easy catch after the wall had taken the pace off Blair's strike. On 53 minutes, Shire picked up their first booking when Gourlay went straight through Mark Ferry. Mark was up on his feet quickly to remonstrate with the Shire man, but the referee stepped in well and was straight in with the yellow card before any trouble could commence. Over the next few minutes Shire built up a bit of pressure, and first they forced Ross Clark to conceed a corner, before Ure struck the base of the post with a powerful drive. On 57 minutes Shire won another corner which, after being half cleared, was played back into the box and across the face of goal. David Crawford was left stranded as Iain Diack headed the ball in to make it 3-1. Over the next 10 minutes some more chances were created from set pieces. First Ross Clark shot wide after receiving a square free-kick from Paul Harvey, then after Oates foul on Whelan, Molloy fired wide from Harve's rolled free-kick. Shire then had another chance from a corner, but DC did well to tip Oates header over the bar. With 25 minutes to go, Oates was getting stuck in again as he fouled Mark Ferry, and then only moments later Blair clattered Tony Quinn and was shown the yellow card. Oates had another shot hit the side netting after a corner, and then it went all went wrong for Shire. Blair appeared to have a go at John Weir after the ball was away, and the referee had little hesitation in producing his second yellow card in the space of ten minutes. Jonny Whelan left the field soon after, with Bryan Felvus coming on, and then another Shire man got himself in the book. Tony Quinn had done well to block Dymock's shot in the box, but Dymock appeared to catch himself on Quinn in the process and ended up down injured. Iain Diack seemed unhappy about something - was he after a penalty? - and eventually the referee decided enough was enough and booked him for dissent. The final ten minutes of the match belonged to Queens, with Clark winning two corners following runs down the right. With two minutes to go, Paul Harvey somehow found himself in a one-on-one with Derek Jackson after flicks from Weatherston and Felvus, but the keeper got down to gather the ball. Up the other end, DC had to make one last save to tip the ball wide after a good shot. With a minute to go, David Weatherston was played in by John Weir, but David couldn't quite get the ball on target, instead hitting the side netting. Overall, it was a good performance from Queens, especially in the first half. In the second Shire seemed to get their act together a bit, but perhaps QP did also ease up a little. Paul Harvey took the sponsor's Man of the Match award, but wasn't the only Spider to shine yesterday. I feel it necessary to also give mentions to Ross Clark and John Weir. Right wing isn't Ross's usual position, but he gave Shire a hard time there, while John, despite seeing almost no first-team action last season was getting stuck in with the best of them. Another possible MotM contender was David Crawford, who made several really important and a couple of top class saves. Personally, I would have picked David Weatherston - a well taken goal, and a good overall performance. The draw for the next round is to take place on Thursday, and we will wait with baited breath to see who we get. East Stirling: Jackon, Oates, Gourlay, MacKay (Gordon 46), Livingstone, P Tyrrell, Dymock, Blair, Diack, Graham, Ure. Subs not used: Sobolewski, Findlay, Ross, Gillespie (SK) Goal: Diack 57 Booked: Gourlay (53 - bad challenge), Blair (65 - late challenge & 75 - late challenge), Diack (78 - dissent). Queen's Park: David Crawford, Ross Clark, Shaun Molloy, Steven Reilly, Richard Sinclair, Paul Harvey, John Weir, Tony Quinn, Jonny Whelan (Bryan Felvus 77), David Weatherston, Mark Ferry. Subs not used: Damiano Agostini, Andy McGinty, Tony Livingston, Alex Cowie (SK). Goals: Ferry 23, Weatherston 32, Harvey 45. Booked: Sinclair (43 - bad challenge) Attendance: 234 |