Billy Stark's Queen's Park lost a sloppy last minute goal to Dirty Rovers at Cliftonhill yesterday as Queen's five game winning streak came to an end in Coatbridge.
After the stunning victory on Tuesday night over SPL Aberdeen, and the other five games they had played in the month of August so far, Spiders were likely to be tired and thinking back to the results of the past month, a draw at Cliftonhill would have been accepted by anyone in the Spiders camp before kick off.
Coach Stark made a few changes from the side that pulled off the penalty kick triumph in midweek. The injured Richard Sinclair was ruled out and in came Jonny Whelan to partner Agostini, as Robert Dunn and Stephen Canning dropped to the bench to allow Alan Trouten and Tony Quinn.
So the line up was Cairns in goals with Paton, Dunlop, Big D and Whelan in defence. The midfield consisted of Alan Trouten, Stephen Canning, Tony Quinn and Stuart Kettlewell, while David Weatherston and Paul Ronald started in the forward positions.
The first half could be best described as a complete and utter non entity as neither side showed any real promise going forward. Queen's looked dead on their feet and David Weatherston blew our best chance when he failed to control Quinn's through ball when running one-on-one with Ewings and this poor touch allowed Dirties defender Gordon Lennon to recover and clear.
Other than this Spiders didn't create to much and Rovers should have taken the lead a few minutes before half time. Former Spiders forward Bryan Felvus played a cross into the middle for Dirty Rovers' top scorer Scott Chaplain who fired into the side netting from six yards. The last action of the half saw Alan Trouten curl one just wide of the bottom corner with his left peg from 25 yards and Mick Dunlop booked for bringing down Chaplain as he raced through on goal.
HALF TIME: Dirty Rovers 0 - 0 Queen's Park
Queen's came out in the second half unchanged from the first but did look more lively near the beginning of the half. We played the ball well on the deck and eventually took the lead on 54 minutes. David Weatherston raced up the left before crossing with his left peg towards Paul Ronald in the middle, the ball flew over Ronaldo's head though but it also decieved Rovers keeper Ewings and flew into the top corner. Davie simply shrugged his shoulders, who cares if he didn't mean it though, QP were 1-0 up!
We passed up a few decent chances, Trouten, Weatherston and Ferry the culprits as we changed it about a bit. Stephen Canning and Robert Dunn replacing Ronald and Weatherston, but couldn't quite find a killer second and anyone who regularly watched Queen's over the last two seasons waited for the sucker punch.
It came, in the shape of three defensive errors, in injury time, from a corner in the space of thirty seconds. Firstly Trouten let his man Andy Sim go short to collect the ball and he also failed to make the original kicker pay for a sloppy first touch after the return pass. He was allowed to whip in a cross and Joe Savage rose unapposed to head the ball past Cairns in the Queen's Park goal.
It was a real sickener, especially after hearing Stenny got rogered by East Stirling 5-0, we could have went clear into second with Berwick to face on Sunday (!) afternoon but we couldn't expect too much after the tiring 120 minutes plus penalties on Tuesday.
QUEEN'S PARK: Mark Cairns, Paul Paton, Mick Dunlop, Damiano Agostini, Jonny Whelan, Alan Trouten, Stuart Kettlewell, Tony Quinn, Paul Ronald (Steven Canning), David Weatherston (Robert Dunn), Mark Ferry
SUBS NOT USED: David Crawford (gk), Frankie Carroll, Richard Bowers
GOALSCORER: David Weatherston (54)
BOOKING(S): Mick Dunlop
REFEREE: John McKendrick
ATTENDANCE: 492
MAN OF THE MATCH: Damiano Agostini, Solid at the back once again and has started the season in spectuclar fashion. Won every ball, but was at fault of the late equaliser as much as the whole defence who stood static as Savage leaped to score.
After the stunning victory on Tuesday night over SPL Aberdeen, and the other five games they had played in the month of August so far, Spiders were likely to be tired and thinking back to the results of the past month, a draw at Cliftonhill would have been accepted by anyone in the Spiders camp before kick off.
Coach Stark made a few changes from the side that pulled off the penalty kick triumph in midweek. The injured Richard Sinclair was ruled out and in came Jonny Whelan to partner Agostini, as Robert Dunn and Stephen Canning dropped to the bench to allow Alan Trouten and Tony Quinn.
So the line up was Cairns in goals with Paton, Dunlop, Big D and Whelan in defence. The midfield consisted of Alan Trouten, Stephen Canning, Tony Quinn and Stuart Kettlewell, while David Weatherston and Paul Ronald started in the forward positions.
The first half could be best described as a complete and utter non entity as neither side showed any real promise going forward. Queen's looked dead on their feet and David Weatherston blew our best chance when he failed to control Quinn's through ball when running one-on-one with Ewings and this poor touch allowed Dirties defender Gordon Lennon to recover and clear.
Other than this Spiders didn't create to much and Rovers should have taken the lead a few minutes before half time. Former Spiders forward Bryan Felvus played a cross into the middle for Dirty Rovers' top scorer Scott Chaplain who fired into the side netting from six yards. The last action of the half saw Alan Trouten curl one just wide of the bottom corner with his left peg from 25 yards and Mick Dunlop booked for bringing down Chaplain as he raced through on goal.
HALF TIME: Dirty Rovers 0 - 0 Queen's Park
Queen's came out in the second half unchanged from the first but did look more lively near the beginning of the half. We played the ball well on the deck and eventually took the lead on 54 minutes. David Weatherston raced up the left before crossing with his left peg towards Paul Ronald in the middle, the ball flew over Ronaldo's head though but it also decieved Rovers keeper Ewings and flew into the top corner. Davie simply shrugged his shoulders, who cares if he didn't mean it though, QP were 1-0 up!
We passed up a few decent chances, Trouten, Weatherston and Ferry the culprits as we changed it about a bit. Stephen Canning and Robert Dunn replacing Ronald and Weatherston, but couldn't quite find a killer second and anyone who regularly watched Queen's over the last two seasons waited for the sucker punch.
It came, in the shape of three defensive errors, in injury time, from a corner in the space of thirty seconds. Firstly Trouten let his man Andy Sim go short to collect the ball and he also failed to make the original kicker pay for a sloppy first touch after the return pass. He was allowed to whip in a cross and Joe Savage rose unapposed to head the ball past Cairns in the Queen's Park goal.
It was a real sickener, especially after hearing Stenny got rogered by East Stirling 5-0, we could have went clear into second with Berwick to face on Sunday (!) afternoon but we couldn't expect too much after the tiring 120 minutes plus penalties on Tuesday.
QUEEN'S PARK: Mark Cairns, Paul Paton, Mick Dunlop, Damiano Agostini, Jonny Whelan, Alan Trouten, Stuart Kettlewell, Tony Quinn, Paul Ronald (Steven Canning), David Weatherston (Robert Dunn), Mark Ferry
SUBS NOT USED: David Crawford (gk), Frankie Carroll, Richard Bowers
GOALSCORER: David Weatherston (54)
BOOKING(S): Mick Dunlop
REFEREE: John McKendrick
ATTENDANCE: 492
MAN OF THE MATCH: Damiano Agostini, Solid at the back once again and has started the season in spectuclar fashion. Won every ball, but was at fault of the late equaliser as much as the whole defence who stood static as Savage leaped to score.