East Fife 1 Queens 0 |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Aug 09 2007 at 8:32 AM |
After our fine performance on Saturday against St.Johnstone I set out for Methil confident that Queens would progress to the second round of the CIS Cup at the expense of 3rd Division East Fife.
The travel club buses left Palmerston just before 4pm but heavy traffic near Cumbernauld and then delays at Kincardine Bridge meant we arrived at New Bayview nearly at kick-off time. The start was delayed for a few minutes to let the travelling support take their seats in the stand. This was my first visit and the quality of the playing surface caught my eye right away, its just a pity that the Queens team could not live up to it.
Queens, as expected made a few changes from Saturday. Stephen Grindley started in goal and at the back Lauchlan and Harris came in for McQuilken and trialist Liam Atkin. In the middle Stevie Tosh returned in place of Burns and Bingo was played up front in place of big Sean.
It was a lovely evening as the game kicked off in front of a crowd of 693 with around 200 of those supporting the visitors.
Queens started well enough and created the first effort on goal after 5 minutes when Andy Aitken picked up the ball on the left and when he swung it across it nearly went over the East Fife keeper and into the net but he somehow managed to knock it over the bar for a corner.
Queens did not put the home side under any real pressure and a lot of our players were inept this evening. There was a lack of urgency about our play and it looked as if they just wanted to do enough to get through the tie. The Fifers had a big back four who were always going to win any high balls played into the danger area so it was always going to be a game where we needed to play some neat stuff on the deck. We did show a few glimpses of good passing football but did not sustain it long enough to give the home side the runaround.
After 23 minutes a neat pass from David Bingham saw Stephen Dobbie released but his low shot was well wide then a few minutes later Brian Gilmour lost the ball and Kevin Gordon hit a shot which Grindley knocked away.
Then Dobbie was released by Tosh and just as a few minutes earlier he dragged his shot wide left.
Stephen Grindley was called into action again on the half hour mark when he had to be alert to make a good save from a decent East Fife header. Queens then fell victim to a couple of very close off-side calls when Dobbie then Bingham might well have been clean through on goal. Then in the couple of minutes before the interval we should have taken the lead when Dobbie found space on the left and sent over a decent ball which found Bingham with acres of space but his header went straight at the keeper and on the stroke of half-time a superb cross field pass from Eric Paton found Dobbie moving into the box but yet again the far side official had his flag raised.
The second half started with no changes made by either side as Queens attacked the end towards the Firth of Forth. Queens applied some early pressure to the Fife defence but were unable to create a clear opening as far too many players were under par this evening. Our first real chance of the half arrived after 54 minutes when Dobbie had a shot well saved by the keeper and as the ball was knocked back over Stevie Tosh should have headed home but instead it went wide. That was as good as it got for Queens and as thehour mark approached play was stopped on the far side after a challenge from Bob Harris who was given a straight red card. Nobody around me could see if it had really been that bad. This gave the home side the boost they were looking for as Gordon Chisholm brought on Jamie McQuilken for the ineffective Gilmour. East Fife then put on a couple of fresh strikers in O'Reilly and McManus before Stephen Dobbie was replaced by Sean O'Connor for Queens.
East Fife then pressed forward and won a couple of corners and from the second of these they grabbed the only goal of the game when a powerful header was blocked on the line by Stephen Grindley but Greig McDonald followed up to hammer the ball high into the net.
It was now going to be a real struggle for Queens being both a goal and a man down but a minute later Bingham should have done better when he was released by Tosh and his effort went over the top. In 73 minutes Chis sent on Jamie Mole for Bingo and the on loan Hearts youngster looked lively and eager to get involved.
Tosh then had another half chance but shot wide after 83 minutes and Jamie Mole had a couple of efforts but it was not going to be our night. After a few minutes stoppage time the Ref blew the final whistle and we made our way back to the buses for the long journey back to Dumfries.
This was a poor performance from Queens and everyone knows they are capable of much better. Far too many players did not perform and they know who they are.Pass marks tonight went to Grindley,Paton and Aitken and Mole for his 17 minutes on the pitch.
Gordon Chisholm has only a couple of days to get things sorted out for what will be a very tough trip to Dundee on Saturday.
Musky.
Back 
