Gemmell Hat-Trick Sufficient To See Off Elgin

mine's a treble!
By The Spider
December 22 2002

Saturday, 21st December, 2002 Queen's Park 3 Elgin City 2 (Bells Scottish League - Division Three)

Due to the enforced long term absences of Tony Quinn and Stephen Canning as a result of the serious injuries that they sustained at Coatbridge last week, Danny Ferry and Ross Clarke were promoted from the bench into the starting line-up, whilst Chris Fisher and Gordon Lappin made their first appearance in the squad for some time.

Having briefly experienced the joys of seventh place in the league table until Elgin's defeat of East Stirlingshire on Tuesday evening, Queen's were especially keen to take all three points from this game so that they could regain that position and also to put Gretna's 6th place within their grasp before the year end.

A magnificent sweeping move up the park in the 5th minute by Richard Sinclair, Jimmy Allan and Willie Martin created an early scoring opportunity for Johnny Whelan but the midfielder hesitated instead of attempting the first time shot, and the chance was lost. Elgin then created some danger of their own up at the other end but Damiano Agostini came to the rescue with a timely interception.

Craig sent a long range left footed drive narrowly past Colin Stewart's top right hand corner in the 14th minute, but a minute later Queen's fans were celebrating as John Gemmell flicked home a near post cross from Jimmy Allan to end the growing crisis of confidence that a succession of bad misses in recent games had heaped upon him.

Both Ross Clarke and Johnny Whelan had half chances to extend Queen's lead before, somewhat out of the blue, Elgin found themselves on level terms in the 29th minute. A left wing corner was poorly defended by Queen's and some slack marking allowed the ball to be cut back from the back post to give Love the initial chance. Although Damiano Agostini managed to block the effort on the line, the ball rebounded to Craig Tully who fired low into the net from close range.

Queen's immediately tried to regain their advantage but Danny Ferry's surging run up the left flank was brought to an abrupt halt by tugging on his jersey from right back MacDonald who was quickly booked by referee Ian Brines for his unsporting behaviour.

Sadly, there was little by way of enterprise from either side for the duration of the half, but it was a different story upon the resumption as both teams raised the quality of their game.

Jimmy Allan sent a great ball across the face of the Elgin goal immediately upon the restart, but neither Gemmell nor Martin were alert enough to take advantage. Elgin then produced their best move of the game and Colin Stewart did well to deny McMullan. However, Elgin did make the breakthrough in the 54th minute when Craig Tully rose unchallenged to nod a right wing corner into the postage stamp corner from close range with Colin Stewart rooted to his line when this was surely a ball that he could and should have come for.

Queen's response was immediate. Straight from kick off, a long ball was launched from the back and a deft flick by Willie Martin sent John Gemmell clean through to clinically despatch the ball low under Pirie's despairing dive. Route one football may not be the most pretty to watch but, aided by poor defending, in this case it certainly was effective.

With the visitor's still reeling from that setback, Queen's repeated the dose a minute later with goalkeeper Pirie and right back MacDonald the main participants in the "after you Claude" routine. Johnny Whelan's overhead kick from the centre circle was designed to be more defensive than creative but, with the two hapless Elgin players leaving the ball to each other at the edge of their penalty area, John Gemmell nipped between them to toe-poke the ball past one side of Pirie before running round the other to dribble the ball into the net. Whether he was reluctant to initially attempt to send it into the empty net from eighteen yards after last week's miss, only he will know, but his hammer of the ball into the back of the net from on the goal-line was the release of considerable frustration for a player with considerable potential, and hopefully this will be a defining moment for the boy that will ultimately lead to greater things for him.

For all that he is not a natural goalscorer, he now becomes the first Queen's player to score a hat trick since David Arbuckle's treble at Hampden against Albion Rovers in August 1997 and, somewhat amazingly, he is only the 6th Spider to achieve that particular feat during the last 20 years (the others being David Arbuckle, Brian McPhee, Micky Hendry, Paul O'Brien and Lexie Grant). Changed days from the 60's and 70's when it was not uncommon to have at least two hat tricks in the same season!

Indeed, young Gemmell could have helped himself to a fourth (and his third in three minutes) only a minute later when Stevie Fallon and Jimmy Allan worked their way down the left wing with the latter centering perfectly for the tall striker. He still had much to do, but turning well he wrongfooted his two markers and only a desperate blocking lunge stopped John's powerful right foot drive from ending up in the back of the net.

After all the euphoria had died down, perhaps stung by the perceived injustice of it all, Elgin began to fight their way back into the game and should have equalised in the 74th minute when substitute James missed a completely open goal with his first touch after coming on a couple of minutes beforehand. Colin Stewart then produced a low diving save to thwart Ross as Queen's began to struggle to retain their lead.

Willie Martin hooked just wide in the 79th minute before Chris Fisher, spotting Pirie some 15 yards off his line, tried an audacious 50 yard lob, but only succeeded in falling on his backside whilst John Gemmell bemoaned the lack of a straightforward pass which would have split the Elgin rearguard asunder. James nearly caught Colin Stewart off guard with a 30 yard snapshot in the 85th minute which whizzed inches past the keeper's right hand post.

It was all Elgin now and Willie Martin, of all people, came to Queen's rescue in the 89th minute when he headed off the line with Colin Stewart a mere spectator after Ross had rose unchallenged to head a right wing corner towards the far post. Then, in injury time, a rash challenge from Stevie Fallon on the edge of the area provided a final scoring opportunity for Elgin but, after much skulduggery involving the movement of the ball behind the back of referee Brines whilst he attempted to move the defensive wall back to the prescribed ten yards distance, justice was done when Colin Stewart dived to his right to clutch the direct free kick.

So an important three points, but Queen's were far from their best and appeared to be badly missing the drive of Tony Quinn in midfield for all that Johnny Whelan was doing his best to raise his game to try to compensate for the long term loss of his central midfield partner. However, Johnny received plenty of assistance from Ross Clarke who had his best game for the club to date, and who is now beginning to fulfil the potential he first demonstrated in the Strollers a couple of seasons ago. Worrying too was the side's inability to deal with corners from either side, and hopefully this is an area that attention will be paid to at training this week.

This coming Saturday it's a visit to sunny Methil to take on League leaders East Fife, and wouldn't it be nice to inflict the same result on them as Queen's did last week when Albion Rovers were knocked off their perch?

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE : 3/5           STAR SPIDER : John Gemmell (the only choice today)

QUEEN’S PARK : Colin Stewart, Richard Sinclair (John Gallagher - 78), Danny Ferry, Steven Moffat, Damiano Agostini, Stevie Fallon, Willie Martin, Johnny Whelan, John Gemmell (Allan Dunning - 90), Ross Clarke, Jimmy Allan (Chris Fisher - 78)

Subs (not used) : Tony Mitchell (GK), Gordon Lappin

Scorer(s) : Gemmell (15, 55 & 56 mins)

Booked : none

ELGIN CITY  : Martin Pirie, Steven MacDonald, David Craig (Richard James - 72), David Hind, Graeme Grant, Craig Tully, David Ross, Kevin Steele, Ryan McMullan (Fraser Bremner - 72), Chris Love, Russell McBride

Subs (not used) : Peter Hamilton (GK), Graham Tatters, ? McGregor

Scorer(s) : none

Booked : MacDonald (pulling opponent's jersey)

REFEREE :  Ian Brines **** (* = inept, ** = poor, *** = mediocre, **** = good, ***** = excellent)