THIS MONTHS LATEST NEWS

For previous news see the monthly archive at the foot of this page.

GAME OFF

29th February 2000

Tonights scheduled match versus Alloa has, this afternoon, been postponed due to a waterlogged Recreation Park. The game has now been rescheduled for Tuesday 11th April 2000.

MATCH PREVIEW

28th February 2000

Queens face Alloa Athletic on Tuesday evening with a 7.30pm kick off at Recreation Park in the game originally scheduled for December 27th. Missing for Queens will be Ally McMillan, Steven Leslie and Marc Cleeland, available for selection again will be Warren Hawke.

MAN OF THE MATCH

28th February 2000

It will come as no surprise to anyone this weekend to learn that David Mathieson is the Internet Fan Club Man of the Match for his stunning performance versus Hamilton Accies on Saturday. Infact Smilers performance also put him in the lead for the Performance of the Season award as well with him receiving an average of 9.05 points, beating Sandy Hodge's previous best of 8.40 by some way. There wasn't a close second this week, the nearest anybody could come was Stevie Mallan with a 6.47, miles behind the returning 'keeper. Warren Hawke retains his position at the top of the Player of the season league table, but the bad news for him is that if David Mathieson plays in all the games from now 'till the season ends then he will come into the reckoning for the awards as well and on his form on Saturday who would bet against him?

PREVIEW

25th February 2000

This weekend sees Queens return to Firhill for the second consecutive game, only this time it's the turn of Hamilton to play host. Missing from the Doonhamers teamsheet will be Leslie, Cleeland and Hawke, all red card recipients in the past few weeks. The midfield should remain as it was against Partick but up front there will be a different partner for Stevie Mallan, maybe Ken Eadie or could Bryan Caldwell force his way back into contention. Hamilton are likely to have Nicky Henderson back and Jose Quitongo remains with the Accies after deciding not to head for America just yet. They will also no doubt be looking for revenge as this season we have a 100% record against them, winning 3-0 at Firhill way back in August and then 3-2 at Palmerston in October after being 2-0 behind at half time, a glorious Paul Harvey free kick winning the points for Queens in the eighty first minute. Queens will need to continue this form if they are to mount another great escape and Hamilton will be acutely aware of what a defeat could mean to them, particularly as they will have to come to Palmerston for the second last match of the campaign. Interestingly on the Unofficial Accies website 38% of fans taking part in a poll reckon that they will be relegated this season, in second place 28% reckon they will be promoted! No time for historical statistics this week, the only stat that matters is tomorrow's result at Firhill.

WARREN'S SITE

23rd February 2000

Some of you may have noticed that Warren Hawke has joined the Queen of the South Internet Fanclub, well it turns out that the Queens front man is a bit of an internet entrepreneur who will be launching his new site in the next few days. Warren's site, as you would expect concentrates on the sale of professional footballer essentials. You can visit it via the banner below or via our links page.

NEWS ROUNDUP

18th February 2000

Queens under fourteen's take on Dundee at the Keswick Centre on Sunday with a 2.00pm kick off whilst all of the other teams are away this weekend. The next match at Palmerston will be the Under 18's versus Albion Rovers on Tuesday evening with a 7.30pm kick off. A big weekend of cup action lies ahead, unfortunately all Queens fans will be able to watch is the results coming in and looking to see if any former favourites make headlines in this round. On Saturday Tommy Bryce and Jim Thomson will face up to former teamate Derek Townsley as Motherwell and Arbroath attempt to get their Scottish Cup replay completed after numerous postponements. The biggest game will be in the English FA Cup, as far as ex-Doonhamers are concerned, as Andy Thomson gets his chance on one of the most famous grounds in soccer as his Gillingham team take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Thommo could infact have already made an appearance at the Bridge had it not been for injury last season when his then team Oxford were so unlucky in defeat. Best wishes to all those involved particularly Thommo who is still very highly regarded by all Queens fans. We also received an email from Doonhamer Bob Black to tell us that he's now moved on from Venezuela to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Bob tells us that he has, "already taken in a few games at the Maracana Stadium, largest in the world, which has had crowds of up to 200,000. A wee bit bigger than Palmerston." Whatever it is Bob it sounds like nice work if you can get it! Finally this week whilst 'surfing' the net for all things Queen of the South, we came across another team by the same name. This Queen of the South, though, turns out to be a fantasy football team who's manager, Mike Souren from Holland, took our name from the PC game Championship Manager 2. After contacting Mike he told us that he decided on our name because it sounded so beautiful. Mike's team can be found HERE as you will see Mike has a strong affinity with things Scottish, or at least Scotch!

NAZ NEWS

18th February 2000

Former Queen's favourite Alex Nesovic seems to have settled in quite well at Harrogate Town. To date he's featured in six matches and scored four times, against Trafford, Whitely Bay, Spennymoor United and Goole. In the match against Whitley Bay Naz came on as a seventy eighth minute substitute and with his first kick of the game scored the winning goal. A couple of weeks ago in the game v Witton Albion he was involved in a really nasty clash of heads. It looked as though he was really seriously injured but he came round before the Ambulance arrived. Needless to say he made it back to the Bar for his lift home! He ended up with nine stitches in a pretty impressive gash on his forehead.
	If you fancy the chance to see Naz in action locally again then you could take a run don to Gretna on 4th March for the Unibond first division match, you'd have to miss out on Queens v Alloa though!
Thanks to Paul Sumpton for the info and photograph. Vist the Harrogate Town website, it is one of the most well designed football sites around and the photo's are terrific.

BURNS NIGHT

16th February 2000

The Queen of the South Fan Club Burns Night, which takes place this Saturday night looks set to be a great success. Almost all of the tickets have been snapped up and an excellent table of speakers assembled. If you have been lucky enough to obtain a ticket here is what you can look forward to: The immortal memory - David Shankland Toast to the Club - Tommy Wilson Address to the Haggis - Mungo Bryson Reply on behalf of the Club - George Rowe Toast to the Lassies - Andrew Dunlop Reply on behalf of the Lassies - Morag Temple There will of course be other recitations on the night. For more updated information on the Fan Club's activities, including how the auction went, visit their page via the Fan Clubs link.

MARVELOUS

14th February 2000

Super Stevie Mallan wins this week's Man of the Match award for his outstanding display at Firhill. Stevie finished well ahead of second placed man Denis Boyle who in turn was well ahead of the rest of the field. Returning 'keeper David Mathieson paid the price for some costly slip-ups as he recorded the second lowest average, only former Firhill favourite Charlie Adams was adjudged to have been a poorer performer. The MoM results on Saturday mean that recent signing Warren Hawke now leads the battle for the player of the season award, forcing long standing leader John Hillcoat back into second place. Check out all the scores via the report link on the fixtures page or on the MoM table.

TRAVEL CLUB

13th February 2000

The Travel Club is holding a race night on the 4th of March in the Queen of the South Lounge Bar at 7.30pm in aid of George Rowe's testimonial fund. Everyone is welcome, please come along.

DUNCAN DEBUT

12th February 2000

Queens latest signing, Graham Duncan, made a scoring debut today at Firhill in the 5-4 defeat at the hands of Partick. Graham just turned thirty one ten days ago and at five foot eleven he adds some much needed height to the doonhamers midfield. He will also add a bit of firepower as he tends to score a few goals with today's counter being his fifth in twenty competitive games this season. He may need to watch his disciplinary record though as he has been sent off twice this term already and found himself yellow carded on no fewer than four occasions. His previous clubs include Dumbarton back in 1988/89 then Stranraer for eight years and the last three seasons at Albion Rovers.

TEAM NEWS

11th February 2000

With the regular central midfield duo of Cleeland and Leslie now missing, arguably for the most crucial part of the season Queens are looking to add an experienced and influential playmaker to the squad in time for this Saturday's trip to meet Partick Thistle. The "Dynamic Duo" have both been red card recipients in the past two weeks and that combined with their previous disciplinary record means that Marc Cleeland will miss the next five matches whilst Club Captain Steven Leslie will miss another four. George and Ken are therefore understandably keen to clinch the signature of the as yet unnamed midfielder. Otherwise the team should remain generally as the Ross County formation with Warren Hawke, hopeful to take the field after his finger break and Sandy Hodge may well feature after coming through Thursday nights training session unscathed. Allan Preston is likely to start although he may well make it into midfield this week as Queens have now extended his loan period for a third month. Denis Boyle will also be available after returning from International duty with the Northern Ireland squad. Partick Thistle will be fired up for this match, having two ex-Queens players in their ranks in the shape of former favourite Des McKeown and mid-season trialist Scott McLean. Current form gives Partick the edge, with them having lost only one of the previous fifteen. The record books show Thistle having had the best of the seventy two encounters with a total of thirty six wins to Queens nineteen.

MAN OF THE MATCH

7th February 2000

Our first ever joint award this week as both John Hillcoat and Ally McMillan scored 6.25. The new player of the season scoreboard will be updated tomorrow night to reflect Saturday's performances. In the meantime you can check out the scores of each of the players via the report link on the fixtures page.

OUCH!

7th February 2000

Warren Hawke's injury on Saturday turned out to be a broken finger, unfortunately the local doctor attempted to reset what he thought was a dislocated finger so you can imagine how painful that would have been. Still all the Queens team suffered as the bus had to wait an extra two hours in Dingwall until Warren's finger had been attended to.

WEEKEND NOTES

4th February 2000

The Queens team bus will have arrived in Inverness by now, as the players make their second trip to these Northern parts this season. For a change their will be no serious travelling before a match as the team bus will make only the short journey between Inverness and Dingwall around lunchtime tomorrow. Despite the ideal preparation, at the back of the players, and indeed all those associated with the doonhamers, minds will be the humiliation of losing seven goals without reply to a team who only last season we had beaten on their own patch. Demonstrating that that result was nothing more than a one off will be foremost in everyone's minds. The team generally travels quite well to Victoria Park, and have yet to taste defeat there, the game earlier this season being drawn one all and the Scottish Cup match nine years ago ending up two all. Indeed the match earlier in the season at Dingwall could so easily have gone Queens way as they made numerous chances but only bad luck and poor finishing let the Staggies off the hook and denied the doonhamers their first ever victory over County. Queens line-up will have a few changes, Steven Leslie will off course miss out for his "violent conduct" red card whilst Sandy Hodge is unlikely to be fit following his ankle knock last weekend and on-loan Stuart Davidson will be back at Killie. Likely to come in will be either Allan Preston or Kevin Robison to the back four and Denis Boyle or Bryan Caldwell to the midfield. In other news from Palmerston this week, striker Chris Strain was released by the club last Friday after failing to force his way into a regular first team spot.

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