| Stenhousemuir |
| Queen's Park |
| 1 |
| 2 |
| (Clark og) |
| (Canning 2) |
| Stenhousemuir: Chris Fahey, Michael Renwick, Steven Fallon, Greig Denham, Robbie Henderson, John Paul McBride, Craig Menzies (Tommy Sinclair 54), Paul Murphy, David Templeton, Iain Diack, Paul McGrillen (Jim Mercer 76). Substitutes not used: Paul Cassidy, John McKeown, David Orr. Booked: Denham. Goal: Clark own goal 80. Queen's Park: Mark Cairns, Paul Paton (David Weatherston 17), Mick Dunlop, Steven Reilly, Richard Sinclair, Ross Clark, Alan Trouten (Bryan Felvus 66), Tony Quinn, Steven Canning, Paul Harvey (Jonny Whelan 88), Mark Ferry. Substitutes not used: John Weir, David Crawford. Booked: Trouten, Canning, Quinn. Goals: Canning 71, 90. Referee: Willie Hornby. Attendance: 460. Queen's roared back into contention for the play-offs with a nailbiting victory over Stenhousemuir, the winning goal coming in stoppage time. Billy Stark's decision to field Steven Canning upfront (queried beforehand) undoubtedly goes down as one of his shrewdest yet, as the long-term injury victim returned to score two wonderful goals. Queen's had the better of the entire game, with Stenny not managing a single shot on target at any point. Their goal came after an agonising mix-up between stand-in Queen's keeper Mark Cairns and Ross Clark, whose header sailed beyond Cairns and in despite Richard Sinclair's desperate attempts to clear. Canning had given Queen's the lead 9 minutes earlier with a superb, looping drive on the turn from the edge of the box, and it seemed impossible that he could repeat the feat. But, just when our promotion hopes seemed dead, he did; shimmying past a couple of defenders before drilling a low shot beyond the reach of Fahey and into the far corner of the net, and setting off indescribable scenes at the visiting end of the ground. Queen's remain two points behind Elgin, but the northerners have two tough final games. A win for them at Cowdenbeath- now league favourites -on the last day can surely be ruled out, meaning that if Queen's can win their two remaining fixtures they'll be home and dry. Trouble is, we've to play Cowdenbeath too, then Berwick away. In other words, to qualify for the play-offs Queen's must take the title off Cowdenbeath one week, then hand it back to them by beating Berwick the following week. Compound this with the fact that Arbroath- a point behind us -have a fairly easy run-in, and Queen's are clearly outsiders. Then again, we knew beforehand we'd have to win our last 3 games, and, thanks to Canning, it's 1 out of 3 so far. |