| Stenhousemuir |
| Queen's Park |
| 2 |
| 1 |
| (McBride, Paton og) |
| (Weatherston) |
| For the second week running, Queen's managed to lose an away game that they controlled for long spells. Defeat at Stenhousemuir was even worse than at Berwick, since Queen's led with only 9 minutes left through Weatherston's strike early in the second half. An injury to Steven Reilly softened up the defence though, and a fine shot by McBride, followed by Paton's unfortunate own-goal, left Queen's still without a win since beating Aberdeen. Mark Cairns was preferred again to David Crawford between the sticks, but Paul Ronald was left on the bench in place of Robert Dunn. The former Partick Thistle forward was heavily involved in the first half and linked up well with Weatherston during that time. In fact Queen's often had Stenhousemuir on the ropes in the first 45 minutes, with Weatherston the ringleader. The fastest player in the league was outstanding for much of the game, but sadly he was occasionally hesitant when finding a man from a wide area. In only the second minute he got free on the right, but found McCulloch instead of Dunn. Three minutes later Dunn collected a slack pass in midfield and advanced on goal, his looping shot being pushed out by the goalkeeper. Queen's kept coming forward, and Weatherston was hauled back on the edge of the box by the ageing Cowan as he raced through. Referee Hardie decided that the initial foul took place outwith the area, and the free-kick, taken by Canning, was struck low towards the middle of the goal. McCulloch spilled it out, and after a partial clearance Dunn volleyed high. Efforts from Dunn and Tyrrell would cause little trouble for the respective keepers, before in the 24th minute Dunn flashed a header wide on being set up by Weatherston's delivery from the left. The front two were all over Stenny's defence. The home team didn't really come close at all until the 33rd minute, when Reilly only partially intercepted young Templeton's cross, the ball reaching Hutchison who dived in to knock it just over. Towards the end of the half, Queen's won a string of corners, but typically most of them were disappointing. Only one of them bothered the defenders, Paton's cross from the right being powered straight into the air by Dunlop, who won the ball for a second time to find Trouten; but the ball just wouldn't squeeze through. Space then opened up for Dunlop, and he made the break forward, finding Dunn inside the box, yet Robert could only square the ball wide. Hence the half ended with Queen's encouraging the support to believe they could win; there was no argument as to who the better side had been. A free-kick early in the second half wasn't capitalised on by either Murphy or Cowan. But Queen's still looked more purposeful, and had two good moves wasted early on in the half. First no-one was around to pick up Paton's knockdown from Ferry's cross, then a beautiful run by Weatherston, started off by him dummying the left-back, ended in a tame ball inside, with only Robert Dunn in any kind of worthwhile position. There was no denying that Queen's should have been ahead already, but eventually a goal did come after 55 minutes. Trouten slid a pass through to Weatherston, who took the ball on and calmly rolled it beyond McCulloch from an angle on the left. From the other end of the ground, the ball seemed to take an age before hitting the net, but it was worth the wait. A chance to extend the lead was passed up on the hour mark, when Kettlewell's shot from a good position was parried out and Trouten couldn't follow up. Queen's period of dominance was now over, and Stenny would creep back into contention, though without pounding at our goal or anything. In the 62nd minute Baird wasted a decent position with a tame effort, and then Murphy once more failed to meet a cross. 68 minutes had gone before Cairns had to make another proper save, rather nervously tipping a drive by recent substitute McBride around the post. Robert Dunn had drifted out of the game and was replaced by Frankie Carroll in the 69th minute. Dunn just doesn't seem 90-minute-fit, but Frankie seemed sharp enough and I'm confident that goals will come from Sir Francis very soon. Two minutes on from his introduction, Weatherston took a diagonal pass into the box and tried to turn Cowan, but the defender was alert to the danger and slid in solidly. A blow was dealt to Queen's with 14 minutes to go when Reilly seemed to be winded in a typically committed fight for the ball. This brought Jonny Whelan to the rescue, and while he was in no way to blame for the goals that followed, Queen's may just have had enough bite to hold on if Reilly had been around. Canning had a drive deflected with 10 minutes to go, with Weatherston the creator once again, and he especially didn't deserve what happened to Queen's shortly after. McBride drove the ball precisely into the right-hand corner of Cairns's net from 25 yards, and Stenny smelt blood. That was only the break-in; the robbery wasn't complete until 2 minutes later. Then, with the home team camping in the Queen's box, Paton came across to try and clear, but only succeeded in spinning the ball of his foot and over Cairns, who could possibly have kept it out. Quite simply, he was as surprised as everybody else. Queen's couldn't recover from that, and three points had gone out the window in a manner improbable even by our standards. Now league positions don't count for much at this stage, but Queen's will need to see off Montrose next week; otherwise the obvious team spirit and talented players at Queen's will be going to waste. Stenhousemuir: Willie McCulloch, David Murie, Shaun Dillon, Mark Tyrrell, Mark Cowan, Paul Tyrrell, David Templeton (Craig Menzies 85), Shaun Murphy (John Paul McBride 64), John Baird, Gareth Hutchison (Iain Diack 75), Brian McLaughlin. Substitutes not used: Robbie Henderson, Andy Carlin. Booked: Cowan. Goals: McBride 81, Paton own goal 83. Queen's Park: Mark Cairns, Paul Paton, Mick Dunlop, Steven Reilly (Jonny Whelan 76), Damiano Agostini, Steven Canning, Stuart Kettlewell, Alan Trouten, Robert Dunn (Frankie Carroll 69), David Weatherston, Mark Ferry. Substitutes not used: Paul Ronald, Tony Quinn, David Crawford. Goal: Weatherston 55. Referee: Colin Hardie. Attendance: 487. |