Official Queen of the South Site

LATEST MATCH REPORT

Reports from matches this season go to the fixtures section and click on the report linked to the match you want to read about. Alternatively for earlier seasons go to the fixtures section of the archive for the relevant year.

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 0 : 0 St MIRREN

26th December 2005

Barnard

Rating:

6.52

Paton

Rating:

6.49

Thomson

Rating:

6.55

Reid

Rating:

8.43

English

Rating:

5.64

Burns

Rating:

6.72

Bowey

Rating:

5.83

Lovell

Rating:

5.87

Gibson

Rating:

5.93

Wood

Rating:

6.67

O'Neill

Rating:

6.61

SUBSTITUTES

- 59

Carr

Rating:

5.04

- 69

Lyle

Rating:

4.96

Robertson

McColligan

Hill

SUBMIT YOUR mom RATINGS

Members of the Internet Fan Club can award players marks out of ten for their performance today. The player with the most points awarded in the two days following a match will be the IFC Man of the Match. All of the points will then be added to a running total for each player and the results published in the mom League Table.

Name or IFC No.

MATCH SUMMARY

First of all a Merry Christmas to all Queens fans and all fans of our opponents on what was a mild day perfect for football and perfect for two teams who wanted to play football in as free flowing a manner as possible.

The Queens side saw the very welcome return of Brian Reid to the heart of the defence with Derek Lyle dropping to the bench and Gary Wood getting the nod up front.

The match started as it would go on with a moment of controversy early on that saw John O'Neill pulled to the ground inside the penalty box and all claims waved away by the referee. The resulting corner was put across by Willie Gibson and Gary Wood saw his header brilliantly saved by Chris Smith in the visitors goal.

Smith manages to stop Woods' early effort

Queens dominated the opening twenty five minutes but didn't have anything to show for it and almost paid the penalty just before the half hour as a Charlie Adam shot cannoned off the post to John Sutton who smashed the ball over the bar. St Mirren came close three minutes later when their first coner of the match taken by Lappin fell to Sutton at the back post but under pressure from Brian Reid he failed to find the target.

Sutton has an effort cleared away

It was Saints who were making the clearer chances and Sutton again had an opportunity to open the scoring just before half time as a free header ended up straight into Richie Barnards hands.

The second half started as the first half did as Gary Wood lifted the ball to the back post for John O'Neill to shoot goalwards but this time Smith was able to cover and stop comfortably. A minute later and Gary Wood had seen his third red card of the season following a clash with Saints Andy Millen. Referee Conroy had no hesitation in handing the Queens frontman the straight red although not everyone was convinced that the striker had done too much wrong.

Following some treatment to Millen the resulting free kick was played forward and both Jim Thomson and John Sutton rose to challenge for the ball, from certain angles it appeared that Sutton lead with his elbow and Thomson certainly felt the force of a severe clash as he was removed from the field on a stretcher. Again referee Conroy brandished the red card and Sutton was off the field of play to even the numbers up after one challenge.

Gibson 'megs' Millen

Ian McCall made his first change with Chris Carr replacing the injured Thomson then a few minutes later replaced Lovell with Lyle as John O'Neill dropped into midfield.

Chances were still being made at both ends with Queens having another penalty claim as the ball cannoned off a St Mirren defender and at the other end Mehmet headed well over with an unchallenged effort. Paul Burns could have done better as he volleyed over a Willie Gibson cross and Steve Bowey just missed the target when clean through on goal.

The final move of the match saw Queens almost pick up the points as Paul Burns laid the ball up for John O'Neill to strike goalward but the former Buddies striker missed what would have been a sweet winner as the ball trundled past the post with Smith beaten.

O'Neills last minute effort runs past the post

All in all the draw was a fair result, there may be many arguments about the validity of some of the decisions but in reality both sets of fans will feel as aggrieved as one another. We were no worse than St Mirren and they no better than us.