Morton 0 Queens 1 |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Sep 05 2007 at 10:26 PM |
The trip to Greenock held a cornucopia of feelings for a virginal visitee last Saturday. Trepidation, that, despite Morton�losing to League leaders Hamilton 2-0 the previous weekend, their good start to the season would be enough to overwhelm a Queens side who had looked fantastic in the league opener against the Saintees but had struggled since, with only one win and four defeats.
Confidence on the DoonhamersTravel Club supporters bus was high, with at least one fan sticking a fiver
on Queens to win at 12/5.There was also a sense of pleasure in 'knocking off' yet another ground off the list of 'grounds I've never been to', and grief, as we met the might of Greenock's finest in luminous jackets and chequered hats (more of that later!) and double joy (or shock) in discovering Morton were letting us all in for £13 (we should write and say 'thank you' :-) ).
There was also sadness when, as we neared our destination, in passing a lone motorbike straddled across the road, where it was obvious something serious had happened. On the way back we learnt that a motorcyclist had lost their life at that spot. Our condolences go out to the family involved.
Things brightened up a bit as we entered the Morton Supporters Social Club. No big screen but a very pleasant establishment with polite bar staff, nice big seated area, free hot pies and bridies for the 150 strong support. The big debate of the day was whether Stephen Dobbie's visit to Scottish Slimmers that morning would result in him being awarded with a stone. Unfortunately, the bookies closed the book on this very early on.
Given the size of Morton's support, the ground itself was a bit of a surprise. Given the threatened rain, the fact that the 'away' stand, with no roof and basically concrete blocks to sit on, was cordoned off brought a smile to my face. This was quickly removed as we squeezed ourselves into the covered stand, with barely room to breathe, never mind escape to go for a 'wee'.
You just know you should't have had that 4th pint when you visit grounds like this. Especially when you have to order a taxi to get to the toilets. Jeezo!! So lets make anyone who sits on the inside seat force around 40 people to stand up so that they can go to the loo and then make them walk half a mile to get to said loo. Sorry, of course it's only £13, what was I expecting,heated loo seats?
On to the game. There were no surprises in the Queens line-up, but there was a big cheer for Peter Weatherson, a former Palmerston favourite, who gave the visiting support a warm wave after hearing his name chanted by the away fans.
.JPG)
picture courtousy of David Gow
The first half was relatively uneventful with the only major scare, being new Morton signing, Ian Russell putting the ball in the net, only to be given offside. Other than that Queens were realtively comfortable at the back, whilst creating chances at the other end.
At half time the near 400 Queens fans made a pilgrimage to the loos, which seemed to have been moved back a couple of miles toward the bay. Some barely made it in time but luckily St Johns Ambulance staff were on hand to take care of the wounded andslightly infirm. The publicly funded Police Force however, seemed to think they had found an Al-Qaeda enclave as they homed in on one or two young
supporters with accusations of 'staring at them in an aggressive manner'. After the usual Dundee debacle, where stewards and police appear to not only have trained in 'how to antagonise normal friendly people' but appear to have had their humour chips removed, and having the exact opposite, at Hamilton, where police sought to be friendly, polite and courteous, we thought the rest of the season would see the friendliest away support in the land treated with respect.Things went out the window as PC Misery and PC Misseress
surrounded a young fan in a manner that would have had an an experienced SAS agent putting his hands up in case they were going to shoot!
The second half started brightly as, Dobbie, who had obviously caught sight of something edible, scampered into the box with the ball, only to discover it was made of plastic and let go only for Sean the Sheep to thwack it into the net. The Queens support who had sung throughout the match erupted and loudly applauded a slightly unexpected start to the last 45 minutes. There then began a long period of Morton players zipping around the midfield as if their lives depended on it but they could not find a way through the Queens defence (for a much better review of the game go to www.qosfc.com :-) ) Although JT had to stick out his long legs to defy a netbound shot, the Queens defence was rarely threatened. Towards the end, as the Morton support (rather prematurely) departed the ground, even the Morton goalkeeper bought a ticket for corners. In the end it was money wasted as Queens held on for a precious 3 pts.
As we left the ground PC Misery held back the traffic for us. My comment to PC Misseress that' that was the nicest thing that had happened to us all day' fell on a stony face. Honest, if you think we are bad and you don't like the job then you should give it up :-)
Morton 0 Queens 1
