Turf Luck On Queen's As Morton Take The Points

unlucky dismissal
By The Spider
March 9 2003

Saturday, 8th March, 2003 Queen's Park 0 Greenock Morton 1 (Bells Scottish League - Third Division)

John McCormack's new side came to his former home looking for a win to keep his charges in the promotion race and, while he managed to achieve that, Morton will need to show more than they did in this game if they are to catch the sides above them. Having said that, it is fair to say that neither team would have found the sticky surface to their liking, but a brand new pitch was being laid straight after the final whistle so hopefully it will play like a bowling green when Queen's play their next home game in two weeks time.

Tony Mitchell made his anticipated return between the posts with both Mark Cairns and Derek Scrimgeour unavailable due to work commitments. Also missing, but available, were Willie Martin and Allan Dunning both of whom had played for the full 90 minutes in a midweek reserve game so it is strange that neither was given a place on the bench when our main weakness at present is up front. With Damiano Agostini out through illness, Ross Clark moved to right wingback and the highly rated Stuart Kettlewell made his first starting appearance in an advance midfield role.

Less than 5 seconds had elapsed when Morton had their first attempt at goal; a 45 yard effort from J. Maisano going over Tony Mitchell's bar as the 'keeper scrambled back to his line having been caught well off it. Another ball soared over Tony in the 3rd minute, but Bottiglieri arrived just too late at the back post and could only prod the deep right wing cross past.

Queen's first effort of the game came in the 6th minute when John Gemmell hooked a shot on the turn just wide of the target. Morton's next threat arrived in the 12th minute, but Gaughan could only direct Miller's right wing cross wide of the near post.

By now Morton were starting to string a few passes together, even if there was a tendency for the move to end right  back where it started from with the 20th odd pass. However, in the 20th minute, their perseverance nearly paid off when J. Maisano's powerful drive flashed inches past Tony Mitchell's left hand post.

Earlier this season, Queen's were guilty of standing off their men too much and, after being bullied by East Fife, Kenny Brannigan appears to have put a bit of fire in his players' bellies. However, perhaps the eagerness to regain possession needs to be toned down a bit as referee Andrew Hunter had plenty of opportunities to flash a yellow card before he finally did so in the 27th minute; Jamie White being the guilty party as he badly mistimed a tackle.

Tony Mitchell had his first real save to make just after the half hour, but he needed two goes at it before he could safely gather Cannie's shot into his chest. Then, in the 33rd minute, Jimmy Allan finally wriggled free of his two seemingly permanent markers with a piece of typical trickery, but John Gemmell could direct his header from his colleague's cross on target. Jonny Whelan had been strangely quiet during the opening encounters but he burst into action a minute later when he latched onto an astute Stuart Kettlewell pass and, although his first effort was blocked, he was first to the rebound and Coyle was a relieved man to see the next shot deflect inches over the bar with the Morton 'keeper off his line.

Queen's were enjoying their best spell at this time with the Queen's midfield, now augmented by Clark who had pushed further forward, controlling the game. Marco Maisano was being harried out of his playmaker role and clearly wasn't enjoying the attention as he demonstrated in the 40th minute when he launched himself at opponents three times in the space 10 seconds without playing the ball, his final challenge on Whelan meriting a red card on its own. However, referee Hunter had been lenient with Queen's players beforehand, so the yellow card shown to Maisano was at least consistent with his earlier approach.

Queen's continued to push for an opener before the break, and Coyle saved his side twice in the 43rd minute; firstly from Jamie White's left foot shot on the turn and then from Stuart Kettlewell after the youngster had made a fine driving run past two retreating defenders.

There were no changes by either side during the break, and battle re-commenced in as furious a fashion as beforehand. However, by now referee Hunter had switched to officious mode, and Ross Clark also entered the little black notebook in the 50th minute for a crunching tackle from behind.

Only a further minute had elapsed before the visitors broke the deadlock. A corner was only partially cleared and John Adams took the ball first time to hit it cleanly from 30 yards through a ruck of players and into Mitchell's bottom right corner. All credit to the Morton midfielder as it was an excellent strike and gave the Queen's 'keeper little chance.

Morton sat back after this and waited for Queen's to come at them in the hope of exploiting them on the counter-attack. However, with Jimmy Allan being denied any space and with Gaughan winning virtually every aerial challenge against John Gemmell, Queen's were unable to create any chances, and it became a poor spell of the game as stalemate ensued.

Queen's needed to up the tempo but, in doing so, they gave Morton's players the opportunity to make straightforward challenges appear worse than they were. Stevie Fallon was booked in the 72nd minute for obstruction after an opponent had clattered into him, but worse was to follow five minutes later. Jamie White clearly took the ball first in a fair challenge deep in Morton's half, but the theatrics that followed convinced referee Hunter positioned on the blind side otherwise, and White was briefly shown a second yellow, quickly followed by a flourished red card, before being ushered from the field of play.

Tony Mitchell made a great one handed diving save high to his right in the 81st minute as Morton themselves stepped up the pace as they sought the killer second goal. Three minutes later McGregor fired inches wide of Mitchell's right hand post before referee Hunter added the names of two more Queen's players to swell his list even further. Firstly David Menelaws was correctly booked in the 86th minute for a late challenge out on the right touchline, but again the hapless official got it wrong three minutes later when he waved a yellow card in the direction of Richard Sinclair after deeming an innocuous challenge to be dangerous.

Cannie, who amazingly escaped being booked after deliberately moving to stand in front of several free kicks to prevent them being taken quickly, almost added insult to injury in the time added on for same when he shot powerfully across Tony Mitchell only to see his effort go wide of the far post.

Overall, like East Fife the week before them, Morton deserved their victory, but they made hard going of it. With Agostini and Cairns presumably restored to the side next week, Queen's stand a good chance of taking something from their match at Gretna, but John Gemmell will need to be given more support up front if KB's first League victory is to be achieved.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE : 3/5           STAR SPIDER : Richard Sinclair (put in a few timely, and untimely, tackles)

QUEEN’S PARK : Tony Mitchell, Danny Ferry, Ross Clark, Jamie White, Richard Sinclair, Stevie Fallon, Stuart Kettlewell (Stephen Canning - 74), Jonny Whelan (Paddy Gallagher - 61), John Gemmell (David Menelaws - 79), David McCallum, Jimmy Allan

Subs (not used) : John Stark (GK), Chris Fisher

Scorer(s) : none

Booked : White (27 - late challenge & 77 - tackle from behind), Clark (50 - tackle from behind), Fallon (72 - obstruction), Menelaws (86 - late tackle), Sinclair (89 - high challenge)

GREENOCK MORTON  : Craig Coyle, Derek Collins, Emilio Bottiglieri, David McGregor, Paul Gaughan, Marco Maisano, Chris Miller, John Maisano (Jamie McAllistair - 81), Phil Cannie, John Adams (Jani Votinen - 85), Gordon Dale

Subs (not used) : David McGurn (GK), Scott Bannerman, Stuart McDonald

Scorer(s) : Adams (60 mins)

Booked : M. Maisano (40 - late challenge)

REFEREE :  Andrew Hunter ** (* = inept, ** = poor, *** = mediocre, **** = good, ***** = excellent)