Gretna 5 Queens 0 |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Nov 15 2006 at 4:44 PM |
On Friday night I went to bed hopeful that Queens could gain revenge over Gretna for the 3-0 defeat they inflicted on us back in August . On getting up and checking the weather my enthusiasm for the day was somewhat dampened as the rain continued to pour down and it looked like the game might be in danger of being called off.
I perked up as I got a lift into the New Bazaar just before noon and as the beer flowed my spirits rose again, and as I filled in my prediction sheet and handed my ?1 over to Jim I was confident that my 2-0 scoreline in favour of Queens might be a reality…..how wrong could I be !
Anyway the sun began to shine as we got on the bus and left Dumfries just before 2pm, everyone was on good form as we belted out songs old and new during the short drive down the A75 towards the village. On arrival we were informed that the match was in doubt and that the 4 travel club buses had delayed their departure from Palmerston just in case. In the end Referee Kenny Clark gave the thumbs up. We were housed in the Dominion Road end along the side of the pitch, a long covered tin shed which offered a poor view of the playing area. The Queens fans certainly outnumbered and out sung the home support. Before kick off it was good to see the Queens support singing “ there’s only one Kenny Crichton” and the former Queens physio responding with a wave and a smile in our direction. A similar reaction was also received from former Queens favourite Derek Townsley. A pity a number of the other Gretna players could not have been so sporting, Davie Nicholls and Stevie Tosh should be ashamed of themselves.
There was bad news for the noisy travelling support before kick off when Colin Scott got a late injury. Just how many times has this happened in the past ? He was replaced between the sticks by B.J Corr whose last start was the 5-0 trouncing 3 weeks before by St.Johnstone up at Perth. Ian McCall started with a 3-5-2 line up with Stephen Swift making his first full start for the club, Eric Paton moving into midfield and Warren Moon dropping to the bench.
With water laying on the surface of the pitch the match got under way and the last thing Queens wanted was to loose an early goal but after 7 minutes a cross from Townsley was punched out by Corr and it landed at the feet of Tosh who sent a fine shot back towards goal which gave the keeper no chance. Queens found it hard to settle and things went from bad to worse 10 minutes later when McMenamin picked up the ball on the right byline and cut the ball back to his strike partner David Graham whose shot ended up in the net for 2-0 Gretna. Queens only showed a rare threat to the Gretna defence and the nearest they came was a free kick from Scally which was cleared by the home defence. It was then game ,set and match before the half hour mark was reached when Graham raced clear of Jim Laughlin only for the Queens defender to pull him down as he raced clear towards the goal. It was a definite penalty and the only surprise to me was that Laughlin was only shown a yellow card. Up stepped the leagues top scorer Colin McMenamin and he made no mistake from the spot to make it 3-0. Queens did have a chance to pull one back before the break when Weir forced a fine save from Alan Main in the home goal and the rebound was cleared from the danger area by one of his defenders.
Warren Moon appeared for the second half in place of Scott McKenzie but this never made much of an impact and it now looked like a day for damage limitation from Queens as they tried to avoid a heavy defeat. Ten minutes into the half Jim Thomson came on for the injured Neil Scally as Gretna kept pressing forward looking for a fourth goal which came after 68 minutes when the Queens defence failed to pick up and close down the Aussie with the Finnish name , Eric Paartalu who had all the time in the world to hit a fine shot from outside the box past Corr. I looked at my watch and cringed when I realised just how long was still to play as I now just wanted to get back on the bus and back to Dumfries. But it was not finished and the Queens support had to suffer more agony when McMenamin got his second of the afternoon in 74 minutes when a long ball over the top was missed by the Queens defenders and he knocked it over Corr and high into the net. That was enough for quite a few Queens fans as some of them began to leave the ground. It seemed an eternity but the final whistle eventually went and we were put out of our misery. There were a lot of sad and dejected faces as we climbed back onto the bus but by the time we were back in Dumfries Capt Blackadder had the songs going again and we started to forget what had happened and now we look forward to the visit of Dundee to Palmerston next Saturday. This will be another difficult game as the Dees had a good victory at Livingston as we struggled at Raydale but I cant wait…..bring it on.
Musky. 
