By Graeme D. Shields
March 17 2002

Tuesday, 26th February, 2002 Montrose 3 Queen’s Park 1 (Scottish League - Third Division)

A bitterly cold night, 4 goals, 2 penalties against Queen’s and Neil Collins sent off. Doesn’t sound like an ideal night but I have to say that the last word you would use to describe this match was dull.

Queen’s started with a surprise inclusion of Liam McVey on loan from Clydebank at left-back in the place of suspended Paul Borland. We had an interesting and pacy looking forward line of Jackson, Canning and Martin. Pace would be the main attribute that would win the game but unfortunately it was not to be in the Queen’s team.

The first incident came after 4 minutes when a long ball through the middle of the Queen’s defence was left to go back to Smith in goal. The Montrose number 11, Jonathon Mitchell, a player who could run like the wind, was on it in a flash and he beat the bemused Smith to the ball and prodded it past him to give The Gable Endies an early lead.

With a further 7 minutes played Mitchell again caused havoc in the Queen’s defence. Another long ball behind Collins found the speedy winger and he raced into the box. The Queen’s defender leaned on the back of Mitchell and he went down. George Clyde, the referee, had no hesitation and pointed to the spot. On this occasion Clyde got it right and Collins was lucky he was not shown a card for denying a goal scoring opportunity. Steve Laidlaw duly dispatched the spot kick past Smith to put Montrose 2-0 up after only 11 minutes.

Things were looking bleak for the Spiders and 4 minutes later they were looking a whole lot bleaker. A cross from the Montrose right found Stuart Ferguson who headed the ball past Smith from 8 yards. Montrose were 3-0 up in 14 minutes after only having 3 attempts on goal. A very impressive scoring rate but we were back to our old habit of switching off at crucial moments and it had cost us dear.

Queen’s produced a lot of shots in the first half with the only real threat on the Montrose goal being a free kick from McVey that brought a good save from McGlynn. Canning reacted first to the rebound and the Montrose stopper did well to block his snap shot.

The only other thing of note in the first half was that Queen’s were denied a definite penalty when Stephen Canning was brought down in the box. Mr. Clyde waved at the young forward to get to his feet. A truly shocking decision as I could hear the smack of boot on boot from where I was standing.

The second half was a lot better from Queen’s. We had a lot of the ball and pushed Montrose back into their own half. We managed to pull a goal back with 15 minutes remaining. Canning and Brown combined well to send Willie Martin away and he coolly placed his shot past McGlynn. We could not build on that goal and we allowed Montrose too much possession after that and they rather too easily played out time.

It would not be right to write a report on this game without commenting on the performance of the referee George Clyde. Inconsistent is a word that is usually associated with referees but some of Clyde’s decisions beggared belief. Neil Collins gave away 2 penalties and therefore denied 2 goal-scoring opportunities. For the first incident he wasn’t even spoken to and yet he received a straight red card for the second. In the second half Willie Martin was brought down 3 yards inside the Montrose box but Clyde gave a free kick and showed no card. Even the Montrose fans beside me couldn’t believe he hadn’t given a penalty. For Montrose’s second penalty Collins clearly fouled the Montrose player a few yards outside the box yet a penalty was given. To be fair to Clyde I felt he had no option but to send Collins off but to give a penalty was unbelievable.

This Saturday we know our fate. If we lose then we will finish the worst team in Scotland this season. If that is the case then we will accept that with dignity. What we will not accept is another inept and inconsistent referee who makes it impossible to play an honest and fair game.

ENTERTAINMENT : 4/5     MAN OF THE MATCH : Johnny Whelan

QUEEN'S PARK : Graeme Smith, Danny Ferry, Liam McVey, Neil Collins, Craig Stevenson (Jim Brown - 46), Richard Sinclair, Tony Quinn (Paul Patterson - 86), Johnny Whelan, Ross Jackson (Allan Dunning - 53), Stephen Canning, Willie Martin

MONTROSE : Gary McGlynn, John Allison, Raymond Sharp (Ralph Brand - 70), John McQuillan, Graeme Christie, Ray McKinnon, David Craig, Grant Johnston, Steve Laidlaw (Andy Hutcheon - 88), Stuart Ferguson, Jonathan Mitchell (James McKellar - 65)