By The Spider
August 14 2003

Saturday, 9th August, 2003 Gretna 1 Queen's Park 1 (Bells Scottish League – Third Division)

Last season Raydale Park was a happy hunting ground for The Spiders but, now that the League's newcomers are a full-time outfit, it looks as if the honeymoon period for visiting teams is over as Gretna are this season's favourites to go up as champions. Injuries to David McCallum and Stevie Fallon, together with the suspension of Stuart Kettlewell, meant that Kenny Brannigan was forced into making some unwanted changes but Ross Conlin, Jonny Whelan and Paul Harvey (in a trialist capacity) were more than adequate replacements.

Like his mentor Eddie Hunter before him, Kenny Brannigan has shown that he does not want the game played the way he himself played it, and it was a joy to see Queen's put together a flowing move in the opening minute which saw Paul Harvey, Ally Graham (with a neat dummy) and David Menelaws all combine to create an opening for Jonny Whelan, but the attacking midfielder blasted high and wide from an acute angle.

For all that the home side contained several "big-name" (well, at this level anyway) players, Queen's were keeping them at bay quite easily until Ross Conlin was short with a pass-back in the sixth minute, and he had cause to be grateful to Derek Scrimgour who dashed from his line to block Cameron's close range effort. Jonny Whelan was looking eager to get on the scoresheet and a decent hooked shot when narrowly wide of Mathieson's left hand post.

However, Gretna's midfield gradually began to see more of the ball although Queen's own midfield unit was doing an excellent job in depriving them of room to operate in. With a few crunching tackles being put in by both sets of players, it was just typical that the first booking of the afternoon should result from an ill-chosen remark, in this case Ross Clark being shown a yellow card in the 15th minute for complaining about referee Sproule's failure to award a free kick after Jonny Whelan had clearly been fouled. Ross was joined in the little black book seven minutes later by Richard Sinclair after the defender had gone in late on Cohen.

From the resultant free kick, the second-ball back in to the area tempted Derek Scrimgour from his line but he was just beaten to it by Cohen who headed narrowly wide. Gretna's most enterprising player at this stage was left back Skelton and he had a go from long range five minutes later, but his effort went well over the bar.

Former Spider Jimmy Allan was having a quiet afternoon but he won himself a free kick on the edge of the Queen's area in the 34th minute following a wriggling run past three players but, taking the kick himself, he curled it just wide of Scrimgour's right hand post. As Gretna began to impose themselves more on the game, a minute later Cameron sent Cohen clear through the middle but his early shot trickled wide of the target.

Just before half time, Allan became the first home player to be cautioned, in his case for a trip on Danny Ferry. As the half moved into time added on for stoppages, Queen's should have taken the lead but were denied by a combination of bad luck and poor finishing. The bad luck came when David Menelaws hammered the ball goalwards from just five yards out only to see it rebound from Skelton who knew little about it. However, the ball fell kindly for Menelaws again and he should have done better than to tamely hit the ball back towards Skelton who was able to clear with comparative ease.

Having been forced to make one change shortly after half an hour when Paul Harvey limped off to be replaced by Danny Ferry, Kenny Brannigan needed to make another at half time as Richard Sinclair was unable to reappear giving Stephen Moffat his first taste of 1st team football since January of this year following a serious ankle injury.

It has been a long time since Queen's have had a central midfield player who tackles hard, isn't scared to have a shot at goal and who likes nothing better than to play neat one-two's rather than hit long passes, but in Steven Reilly they seem to have found the best exponent of that type of play since Jimmy Sinclair. Always on the move, he was able to join his attackers in the 48th minute but both his initial shot and the follow-up from the rebound were blocked by defenders before they could trouble 'keeper Mathieson. However, Gretna should have taken the lead themselves in the 51st minute but quite how Cameron was able to scoop Skelton's cross over the bar from five yards distance must be known only to the player himself.

Gretna's pacy forward Cohen had shown lots of aggression throughout the first half but he completely overstepped the mark in the 58th minute when he squared up to Damiano Agostini at the halfway line whilst play raged on deep in the Gretna half. Although the incident initially took place behind referee Sproule, it occurred right in front of the far-side assistant referee who could not have failed to see that Agostini was entirely the innocent party having remained completely motionless in spite of Cohen's threatening behaviour. However, to the amazement of all, he offered no assistance whatsoever to Sproule who was then left to assume that both parties were equally guilty and proceeded to book both Cohen and Agostini for their part in the incident. Had Sproule been made aware of the reality of the situation, there is little doubt that Cohen would have received a red card and Agostini none at all. If a referee supervisor was present, hopefully he will have made note of the events and have tutored the assistant referee as to his role in such instances in future.

Ten minutes later, Galloway became the sixth and final player of the afternoon to be booked, his offence being the stupid one of dissent.

Queen's now enjoyed their best spell of the game and Ross Clark saw a shot on the turn go narrowly past before a measured 30-yarder from Danny Ferry was tipped over at the last minute by Mathieson. From the resultant corner, Ally Graham's powerful header towards the postage stamp corner looked to be in all the way, but again Mathieson got a hand to it on the line to palm it away.

At this stage Gretna looked to have little left to offer, and if there was to be a winner then Queen's would have been the favourites to score it. However, all their good work was ruined by one piece of carelessness in the 83rd minute. Having done the hard work to dispossess Cohen out on Gretna's left wing, Allan Dunning tried to be too clever by turning inside his opponent instead of sending the ball deep into the Gretna half. However, Cohen is too quick a player to be beaten that easily and he nipped the ball away from Dunning's toes before sending it across Scrimgour's six yard line where Martin Cameron made up for his earlier glaring miss by side footing the ball into the empty net.

Queen's could have gone further behind with two minutes remaining but Agostini produced a great saving tackle after Ross Conlin had been beaten by the bounce of the ball to allow Cohen to advance on the unprotected Scrimgour.

As the game headed into the third minute of time added on for injuries, it looked for all the world that Queen's fans would once again be drowning their sorrows that evening over tales of yet another hard luck story. However, for once, fortune was on their side as they made Gretna suffer for some petulant displays of time wasting. Initially there seemed little danger as a deep long ball from Conlin was met by the commanding figure of Holdsworth deep in his own half having been just missed by Ally Graham, but Holdsworth's header rebounded off the back of O'Neill's head to fall kindly for Frankie Carroll who ran on to dispatch the ball past Mathieson with his left foot from a very tight angle with the minimum of fuss. It was a great finish from the fans' favourite and who cares whether he picked his spot or simply closed his eyes before blasting it into the far corner of the net. Either way, it was a goal to remember and one that Allan Dunning probably had more cause to celebrate than most.

On a strange opening day to the season, only Elgin City and Peterhead took all three points which means that Queen's have an early opportunity to defeat the jointleague leaders when the former Highland League side make the long journey south next Saturday. If Queen's can win that one to bust Kenny Brannigan's Hampden hoodoo, this could indeed be a season for Queen's fans to remember.                                   

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE : 3/5           STAR SPIDER : Steven Reilly (always looks to play passes)

QUEEN’S PARK : Derek Scrimgour, Allan Dunning, Ross Clark, Richard Sinclair (Stephen Moffat - 46), Damiano Agostini, Ross Conlin, Steven Reilly, Paul Harvey (Danny Ferry - 32), Ally Graham, Jonny Whelan, David Menelaws (Frankie Carroll - 64)

Subs (not used) : n/a (GK), Stephen Canning

Scorer(s) : Carroll (90 mins)

Booked : Clark (15 - dissent), Sinclair (22 - late tackle), Agostini (58 - agressive behaviour)

GRETNA : David Mathieson, Keith Knox, Gavin Skelton, Richard Prokas, Paul O'Neill, David Holdsworth, Stephen Skinner (Wayne Gordon - 77), Michael Galloway, Martin Cameron, Gary Cohen, James Allan (Ryan McGuffie - 49)

Subs (not used) : David Wylie (GK), David Irons, Richard Robb

Scorer(s) : Cameron (83 mins)

Booked : Allan (44 - trip),  Cohen (58 - agressive behaviour), Galloway (68 - dissent)

REFEREE :  Martin Sproule *** (* = inept, ** = poor, *** = mediocre, **** = good, ***** = excellent)