| Spiders Can Fly |
| Last week's victory over Aberdeen must rank as the finest single result in the history of Queen's Park. Yes, long ago we were able to turn up and saunter off with the Scottish Cup, Glasgow Cup, Anything goes-if-its-for-Charity Cup etc. without breaking into a run (our first players didn't need to, since they invented the pass instead). Sometimes we didn't even have an opponent around to beat, but we were expected to do all of this then. In those days Queen's Park enjoyed the kind of intrinsic advantage that the Old Firm do now, though it had to be built up through years of hard work and a willingness to look beyond the muddy pitches of Cowlairs and Clydesdale. It couldn't last, as the Queen's men of the day knew no doubt; but sticking to their principles was always more important than winning. This is illustrated, for instance, by the fact that when the penalty kick was introduced, Queen's would refuse to defend their goal after conceding one, regarding such an award as a slur against their integrity. Presumably they wouldn't have taken one of their own either. Thankfully, that's one tradition that didn't last long- there'd have been no win over Aberdeen if it had- but most of the others did. The rigid idealists might have condemned us to years of mediocrity and worse, but their decision ensured that results like Tuesday's would be greeted as if the Second Coming had happened. Jimmy Calderwood has told his players they should be ashamed to be seen in Aberdeen after their rotten performance; the Queen's team should be carried up and down Glasgow's streets upon the shoulders of all true football fans for what they achieved on Tuesday. Not only did they put Queen's Park into the next round of a cup, but far more importantly they proved that the moneyman has not been able to conquer football completely. It remains our duty as a club to make sure that he never does. Tuesday may not herald the Second Coming of Queen's Park FC, but it showed all of the sneering cynics what every supporter of our club didn't need to be told; that we are the very opposite of an irrelevance in the modern game. Jim Traynor? Ian Bell? Tom Shields? Were you tuned in to Radio Scotland on Tuesday, or making some better use of your time instead? Perhaps Jim was too busy out celebrating our ejection from Hampden for the game, while Ian was probably dancing the night away at an 'SPL 2' disco. As for Tom, well being such an ardent junior fan he presumably isn't very interested in football at all. From the above, you'll be able to infer (if you don't read the Sunday Herald, and frankly who would?) that Ian and Tom are in favour, or at least not opposed to, the cosy little groups I mentioned respectively cutting adrift and swallowing up our own league. As for Jim, well if you've ever touched a Daily Record... no of course you haven't. My apologies. Anyway, mainly for their benefit, here's what all the fuss is about (the easily shocked may wish to turn off their screens now): QUEEN'S PARK 0, ABERDEEN 0 - QUEEN'S PARK WIN 5-3 ON PENALTIES. |