By The Spider
August 28 2002

Tuesday, 27th August, 2002 Queen’s Park 3 Brechin City 4 (Bells Challenge Cup - Semi Final)

Although this competition has been devalued by the comments of some clubs, noticeably those who are no longer in it, there was no sign of Mickey Mouse at Hampden Park last night. Instead, backed by two sets of vociferous supporters, both teams gave their all right from kick-off and served up a marvellous evening's entertainment.

For all that the car park was tractor-free, Brechin brought several busloads of fans down with them and all this helped to create a genuine cup tie atmosphere, even amidst Hampden's large expanses.

Normally one team or other dominates the early stages of such games, determined to seize the initiative whilst the other concentrates on avoiding losing an early goal. well, no such tactics this time as both sides went straight for the jugular. Brechin created the first opportunity with Gibson skinning Agostini on the left touchline before cutting back the ball back for Miller whose netbound shot was well blocked by a defender.

At the other end Stephen Canning had a point blank back post header saved by Hay who also did well to beat away the follow up from Tony Quinn. Craig Taggart then fed a great ball into the Brechin penalty area for Canning to run onto and his deflected shot drifted just past the far post with Hay beaten.

Brechin then created a great opening in the 10th minute when Black made it to the byeline after Danny Ferry had been left with two men to cover, but Black completely sliced his cross behind the goal with several of his team-mates queuing up for a quality delivery.

Then Steven Moffat made a great break out of defence to begin a flowing move that saw John Gemmell create an opportunity for Jimmy Allan but Hay was able to deflect the winger's fierce drive for a corner. Grant then showed tremendous body strength to hold off Agostini and lay the ball back to Templeman, but the lanky striker's left foot shot was nearer to the right corner flag than Tony Mitchell's left hand post.

Midway through the half, Taggart played a neat one-two with Ferry before flighting a perfect cross to Canning who completely fluffed his header when right in front of goal. As the end to end pattern continued, Tony Mitchell had to look alert to hold a fierce Templeman drive.

Craig Taggart, for the first time it has to be added, was now beginning to look like a quality player and his creative midfield play began to compensate for his defensive covering inadequacies and he put another great ball into the Brechin area, this time for Allan but again a golden opportunity was wasted as the young winger snatched at his shot when left with only Hay to beat.. Within seconds though it was Brechin who threatened to make the breakthrough and Tony Mitchell made an instinctive left foot save from a Grant piledriver which had gone through the legs of Damiano Agostini.

With such an opening attacking game which was a great advert for lower league football all that was missing was a goal, and Queen's duly supplied it in the 26th minute. Again Craig Taggart was involved in the build up, linking with Danny Ferry who played a ball across the edge of the Brechin area. Latching onto it, Jimmy Allan neatly dribbled his way past two defenders before coolly slotting the ball under the advancing Hay.

As Brechin tried to restore parity, Templeman was given a clear scoring opportunity at the back post from a corner, but he headed well over the bar. Then John Gemmell broke clear of his markers to send a dangerous ball across the face of the goal, but it was intercepted when Steven Moffat of all people would have benefited from an earlier and more accurate delivery.

Brechin's equaliser came in the 34th minute and was partly due to slack marking as Queen's midfielders failed to spot an off the ball run from Marc Millar who latched onto a lay-off from Grant following a throw-in to send a cracking right foot drive beyond Tony Mitchell and into the far top corner.

Queen's then made a good break through the middle with Jimmy Allan again using his pace to move away from defenders before his promising run was brought to an abrupt halt by Skinner who was deservedly booked for a blatantly professional foul near the halfway line.

Level at the interval, the game was finely poised and both sides left the field to loud applause for having played some fine football during as entertaining a forty five minutes as had been witnessed at this ground for some time.

Obviously concerned by Queen's ability to break from defence at pace, Dick Campbell made two changes at half time and these ultimately provided Brechin with the upper hand. Upon the resumption, Brechin launched the first attack and Gibson's snapshot went narrowly over the bar with Mitchell stranded after the shot had deflected off a Queen's defender who had done well to close the visiting forward down.

As Brechin now began to control the midfield, Jackson became increasingly influential and the former Hibs midfielder sent a powerful right foot shot inches wide of its intended target. With Taggart now looking off the pace of the game, he was quickly replaced by Sinclair to allow Danny Ferry to move infield to help shore up that area for Queen's. The Queen's captain was quick to make his presence felt in that area and, in the 57th minute, he sent a crossfield pass to Allan to allow the left winger the chance to have a clear run at the last defender. Successfully skipping by him, Jimmy was left with Hay to beat and although the angle was acute, there was a big enough gap at the near post to aim for. Jimmy's shot was well enough struck, but he sliced it slightly and it fell harmlessly into the sidenetting just behind the post.

Brechin took the lead for the first time in the 64th minute. With Gibson attracting the attention of the defenders at the near post, it was simplicity itself for Grant to sent the ball past Mitchell to the back post where Chris Jackson was able to walk it into the empty net with time to pose for photographers as he did so.

Still, there was plenty of time for Queen's to fight back, and with an energetic looking Chris Fisher on for the tiring Stephen Canning, Queen's still had much to fling at the Brechin defence. The first effort came from an unlikely source, and Richard Sinclair's left foot drive from 35 yards slipped by Hay's left hand post without causing the 'keeper any concern.

Brechin extended their lead in the 69th minute in somewhat controversial circumstances. Gibson looked to be well offside as he ran onto a through ball before rounding Mitchell whose clumsy challenge produced the inevitable penalty and yellow card. Whilst the Queen's supporters howled derision at stand side assistant referee John McKendrick, and justifiably so, the lack of a raised flag came as no surprise as the hapless official had been getting it wrong all night, producing his flag when players had two defenders between them and the goal whilst on a couple of occasions allowing a move to continue when it should have been brought to a halt. Nonetheless, Kevin Fotheringham wasn't prepared to hang about and dispute the merits of the award, and Tony Mitchell had no chance as the fierce left foot drive flew low into his bottom left hand corner.

And so that was that thought the Queen's fans, yet amazingly within the space of a few minutes, the game's fortunes would see-saw frustratingly for each team. It was the 72nd minute when Chris Fisher was given space to run at a defender for the first time and he fairly sped into the area before putting the ball on a plate for John Gemmell two yards out at the back post.

Game on again thought the Queen's fans, but no sooner had the cheering stopped than Roddy Grant had taken advantage of defensive slackness to send a left foot volley beyond Mitchell and into the far corner to restore Brechin's two goal advantage. John McCormack responded quickly by bringing on Martin for Jimmy Allan and Willie made an immediate impact. His first touch was to accept a short corner on the left side of the Brechin penalty area, his second was to fire the ball towards goal where first Johnny Whelan flicked it on with his head before Tony Quinn added a final touch with his head from just two yards out. Although it was announced that Whelan was the scorer, that wasn't the way it appeared to Quinno's team-mates who congratulated him as they made their way back to the halfway line.

So, 4-3 with over quarter of an hour remaining and an amazing five goal burst in the space of just ten minutes.

Sadly, with both teams nearly dead on their feet, this last period not surprisingly failed to match what had gone before. With Brechin now determined to grimly hang on and wind down the clock as much as they could in the process, it was left to Queen's to save the game, but they were only able to conjure up two half chances to do so.

The first came in the 83rd minute when Steven Moffat flicked a cross on to John Gemmell and, perhaps not realising just how much time he had, the youngster hurried his shot on the turn and didn't get anything like the power he would have wanted on it. That in itself nearly confused Hay who misread the flight of the ball and almost ended up juggling it into his own net. Then in injury time, Gemmell headed the ball back across the face of the Brechin goal and so determined was Cairney to get back to cover that he only succeeded in knocking the ball towards his own net leaving Hay to make a desperate diving save to keep the ball out.

And so ended the great Queen's Park midweek adventure, whilst for Brechin a final place awaits to compensate them for being knocked out at this stage last year. Seven goals in a semi-final. Who could top that? Well, St. Mirren and Queen Of The South actually with St. Mirren scoring in injury time to go one better than Brechin on the goals for front.

There was absolutely no disgrace for Queen's in this defeat, and hopefully their brave display will have earned them many admirers, and perhaps a few new fans. There are several exciting players at Hampden right now, and it may be a case of getting to watch them while you can. For example, it is rumoured that John Gemmell has been lined up by Stoke City for a week's trial in October, and if this is the case then he could be on his way as early as the turn of the year.

For now though Queen's just have to pick themselves up and get on with it. This Saturday sees the visit of Gretna to the National Stadium and the collection of league points once more becomes the immediate focus.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE : 5/5           STAR SPIDER : DANNY FERRY (covered every blade of grass)

QUEEN’S PARK : Tony Mitchell, Danny Ferry, John Gallagher, Steven Moffat, Damiano Agostini, Tony Quinn, Craig Taggart (Richard Sinclair - 51), Johnny Whelan, John Gemmell, Stephen Canning (Chris Fisher - 65), Jimmy Allan (Willie Martin - 74)

Subs (not used) : Stewart Thomson (GK), Paddy Gallagher

Scorer(s) : Allan (26), Gemmell (72), Quinn (74)

Booked : Mitchell (69)

BRECHIN CITY : David Hay, Greg Miller, Roddy Black (Charlie King - 46), James Smith, Harry Cairney, Kevin Fotheringham, Justin Skinner, Marc Millar (Paul Campbell - 90), Roddy Grant, Graham Gibson, Chris Templeman (Chris Jackson - 46)

Subs (not used) : Mark Cairns (GK), Paul Riley

Scorer(s) : Miller (34), Jackson (64), Fotheringham (69), Grant (73)

Booked : Skinner (foul - 36)

REFEREE :  Stuart Dougal *** (* = inept, ** = poor, *** = mediocre, **** = good, ***** = excellent)