Season 2006/07 - First Quarter Review
Last updated : 02 October 2006 By Andyboy
AUGUST
Queen's began the month with a triple signing swoop that left Queen's fans very optimistic about the opening day encounter against Arbroath at Hampden, former Stirling, Partick, St Mirren and Dumbarton forward Robert Dunn was joined by his former Sons teammate, veteran Paul Ronald and youngster Michael Keenan from Busby Amatuers.
This set us in good stead for the visit of the Red Lichties, but not even the "third debut" of fans favourite Frankie Carroll helped us as we fell to an almost embarrasing 3-0 home defeat. Barry Sellars and Bryan Scott (2) grabbed the goals that day as Dunn also made his debut, from the bench.
The distraction of the CIS Cup was up next and few expected Billy Stark to mastermind a shock victory over former club Hamilton Accies at Hampden, but the Spiders astounded even their loyalist of supporters with a 2-1 success, thanks to a phenomanal showing by keeper David Crawford who played no small part, saving two Accies spot kicks. Steven Canning put us ahead before Richard Offiong's equaliser. In extra time Offiong was sent off and supersub Richard Bower's brilliant lob
secured victory. Queen's were rewarded with a home tie with SPL Aberdeen in return, but due to a Rolling Stones concert at Hampden that week, the game was relocated to Partick Thistle's Firhill Stadium, and we all know how that panned out.
After the cup heroics we had to get ourselves ready for a tricky away match at Elgin City on the 12th. Despite sending's off to Richard Sinclair and Mark Ferry a brilliantly vocal Queen's support inspired Starky's men to a 2-1 win. Ferry and Steven Canning scored the Queen's goal while Charlesworth's goal for City was sandwiched in between.
The Challenge Cup draw had given us a potentially tricky encounter away at East Stirlingshire next in First Round action, and a second string Queen's side turned on the style at Firs Park. Paul Ronald, Scott Livingstone's og, Richard Bowers, Paul Paton and Shaun Molloy scored in a 5-0 drubbing of Shirey, and Queen's reward was a chance to play at St Johnstone's McDiarmid Park for the first time ever in the next round.
Next up was a big league encounter over local rivals Dumbarton at Hampden Park on the 19th as Queen's looked to build upon what had been an excellent week for the side, and we did in front of a bumper crowd of 884. Despite being under the cosh for the majority of the game supersub (and former Sons skipper) Paul Ronald dispossed experienced defender Dave Craig on the wing, and his low cross was drilled home from 10 yards by on form midfielder Steven Canning. Hampden erupted and we had a very, very good 3 points on the board, prior to the big cup match, against Aberdeen, on Tuesday night at Firhill.
The Aberdeen result the following game will surely go down as one of the greatest nights in the long,
illustrious history of Queen's Park Football Club as after a 0-0 draw the mighty Queen's dumped the Premier League Dons on penalty kicks by 5-3. Never mind kept the big boys at bay, we should have won it before then as David Weatherston and Alan Trouten passed up great chances to wrap it up before the penalties, but never mind that, perfect penalties by Canning and Ferry were followed by Robert Dunn, who needed a huge slice of luck to beat Derek Soutar and a thunderbolt by goalkeeper Mark Cairns, and then upstepped Alan Trouten to cooly slide home the winning kick. It was the best night supporting the side for almost everyone of a black and white persuasion that night at Firhill and it will be forever remembered, the fans partied into the night and on Saturday 26th we had the joys of Cliftonhill to bring us back down to earth.
And, if that was it's purpose it done it's job well as Queen's struggled to a 1-1 draw. After passing up a depressing number of chances David Weatherston gave us the lead at the start of the second half with a goal which was intented to hit Paul Ronald on the head as he raced through the middle. It couldn't last though and Dons hero Trouten made the error which allowed Joe Savage to score a Rovers equaliser in stoppage time.
Next up for knackered Queen's was the trip to Perth to face St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park in the 2nd Round of the Challenge Cup. The legs weren't there though and Saints scored three without reply as Queen's failed to perform. Trinidad & Tobago World Cup striker Jason Scotland grabbed a double (seen right scoring opener) and Peter MacDonald also scored for the Saints. The Queen's support though got right behind the side in what was Spiders first ever appearance at McDiarmid Park since it's opening in 1989, as Queen's prepared themselves for a crunch match at Berwick Rangers on the 3rd of September.
SEPTEMBER
After watching Scotland score six against tiny Faroe Islands the previous day, Spiders travelled over the border on Sunday and the big away support were left disappointed by a poor performance as Queen's crashed 1-0. Ian Thomson scored a winner late in the first half but Queen's were to blame for the defeat, as Paul Ronald, David Weatherston, Mark Ferry, Alan Trouten and Steven Canning were all guilty of missing glorious chances in the Shielfield sunshine.
The match against Stenhousemuir on Saturday the 9th was much the same and countless chances were passed up before David Weatherston raced away to give Queen's the lead. We squandered even more gilt edged opportunities before a late Stenny one-two nicked the points from under our noses. Their second, a comical own goal by Steven Canning or maybe Paul Paton depending on your point of view.
Next up was a match against Montrose at Hampden and once again missed chance syndrome took over as Queen's couldn't break through a stubborn Montrose rearguard. It was the Gable Endies who took the lead through Andrew Rodgers disputed penalty after 55 minutes. We huffed and puffed and missed chances, Weatherston, Ferry (left), Canning and Trouten all culprits before Ferry equalised with 5 minutes left, scoring a 35 yard screamer which whizzed past Andy Reid and in. Next up was Motherwell in the cup and it would take a severe improvement to take anything from that one.
The Well match started in the same vein in front of nearly 2500 at Hampden, Steven Canning and Robert Dunn both had efforts cleared off the line before the SPL side had got out their own half, but there wasn't to be any more cup heroics which were so brilliant in the Aberdeen encounter as a hat trick by Well's Irish forward Richie Foran secured a place in the Quarter Final draw for the Steelmen. It was a real disappointment after previous cup endeavours but at least we bowed out with our heads held high.
The next match saw league leaders East Fife visit Hampden on the 23rd and completely out of the blue, Queen's produced their best league performance of the season. The leaders lacked impetus and Queen's rattled three goals past them without reply. Former Fifers' star Paul Ronald (right) opened the scoring midway through the first half with a fine header before David Weatherston cashed in on a goalkeeping error for the second. The impressive Weatherston added his second midway through the second half to secure a fantastic three points.
The last match of the quarter was at East Stirlingshire on Saturday, Paul Stewart's wildly deflected free kick gave Shire the lead midway through the first half before Paul Ronald levelled with a left foot rocket in the second half. Shire showed some initiave though and their late pressure ended with Steve Canning headed into his own net under little pressure from the Shire forward line, we've had some ridiculous highs and some deppresing lows, how about some consistency boys, eh.
