Nightmare At Glebe Park


the defence rests!
By The Spider
March 16 2002

Saturday, 16th March, 2002 Brechin City 5 Queen’s Park 0 (Scottish League - Third Division)

Match Report

Before the match kicked off, even the most optimistic Queen's supporters were deeply concerned about the outcome of this game and so it proved. Faced with seeing his squad decimated by injury and suspension, John McCormack was forced to field an experimental side with out-of-retirement-again Ross Caven as its mainstay, but it all went horribly wrong right from kick off.

It took precisely 58 seconds for the net to bulge with a well crafted goal. Roddy Grant came short to receive the ball and Templeman simply ghosted into the space behind him. Grant then hooked the ball over his shoulder to leave the towering Templeman virtually unchallenged (nobody under 6' tall could reasonably be expected to beat him in the air) to nod the ball down for Charlie King whose blind side run was picked up by no-one to leave him time and space to smash the ball past Smith from 10 yards.

Having got the loss of a by now customary early goal out of the way, Queen's fans waited for the side to settle down. Brechin had other ideas and simply kept pressuring the defence into making mistakes. The first came when James Bruce panicked when facing his own goal and tried to power a header for a corner. Instead it bounced off one of his own players and fell to Roddy Grant in splendid isolation 10 yards out and it was so easy as he hammered the ball past Smith's despairing outstretched left hand and Bruce who by now was back on the line.

The next mistake brought a third goal in only the 13th minute. A cross was poorly headed out to the edge of the box and Derek Clark steadied himself before volleying into Smith's bottom right hand corner.

It was a similar story at Montrose so perhaps Brechin would ease off? Well, they might have done if they weren't being presented with gilt-edged opportunities. Again a cross, this time from the left following a short corner, and the lack of commanding aerial presence (someone like Cunningham perhaps?) at the back, did the damage and Kevin Fotheringham was totally unmarked inside the six yard box at the back post to sweep the ball home with only 18 minutes played and yet another basic error to be discussed at the interval.

A fifth nearly came in the 29th minute when Miller latched onto a Grant lay-off and forced Smith into his first save of the afternoon. And what had Queen's had to offer during this first half hour? Not a lot really which was hardly surprising given that Stephen Canning was being asked to take on the entire Brechin midfield himself whilst a clealy unfit Stewart Orr chased shadows, Paul Patterson merely guarded space on the flank, and poor Johnny Whelan was being asked to man mark Templeman; a duty not well suited to his creative abilities.

Still, Queen's did manage to earn themselves their first corner seconds before the half hour mark and John Whelan was desperately unlucky to see McKeown make such excellent contact with his left hand to push his flashing header up and over from underneath the bar.

The game was now becoming more of a contest and less of a siege. Riley curled a shot over from a good position in the 33rd minute before Ross Jackson saw his chip from an acute angle over the diving McKeown cleared off the line and out to Patterson whose shot was deflected for a corner.

If anything, the fifth goal came against the run of play, but it was a thing of beauty nonetheless. Ignoring the usual "big diddy" jibes, Chris Templeman comfortably held off a weak challenge on the six yard line to flick a low cross from the right with his heel and into the far corner despite Smith being able to get a hand to it.

Fortunately, having already equalled their all time record victory against Queen's, Brechin failed to add to it again before the interval thereby giving a beleaguered group of youngsters the chance to regroup. By now, of course, the damage was done so any tinkering would simply have been an attempt to paper over the cracks and if changes were to be made then they should have come half an hour earlier.

Having got his breath back, Stewart Orr managed to create an opening for himself in the 47th minute, but his strike from the edge of the area lacked power and was comfortably saved by McKeown. That little assault having been repelled, Brechin began to stroke the ball around leaving Queen's the undesirable task of having to chase it to regain possession, merely draining already tired legs. Johnny Whelan's frustration eventually got the better of him as he left a foot in after another fruitless run to make a challenge and, although the clip on the heel was only a light one, referee Richmond's yellow card for intent was a correct one.

Graeme Smith produced a great diving save in the 64th minute to punch out a long range drive from Grant before Ross Caven almost added to his own impressive goal tally, only to see his header from McVey's inswinging corner cleared off the line.

In the 77th minute, Fotheringham curled a free kick narrowly past a post but Queen's could feel especially hard done by two minutes later. Chris Fisher burst between two defenders and was hauled down by the one closest to him, but more importantly, the one also closest to goal  -  i.e. the last man. In those circumstances, a referee has no power of discretion and if he awards a free kick for the offence, a red card should automatically follow. Whether the second defender could have made up the lost ground is irrelevant and does not form part of the equation. Amazingly, and almost beyond belief, Fisher's reward for his enterprise was a direct free kick 25 yards out, and Richmond didn't even utter a single word of rebuke to the guilty defender, let alone a yellow card which would have been insufficient punishment in itself. Little wonder that John McCormack took the opportunity to express his opinion upon the occasion of the gutless official's next visit to that side of the pitch with the irony being - yes, you've guessed it - that he was the one to be given a talking to for his dissent.

To add insult, John Gemmell took one of the most ineffectual free kicks you will ever see, merely trundling the ball into the wall.

Gemmell himself was booked in the 83rd minute for an innocuous, but slightly late, tackle which was perhaps just the official's smug little way of letting everyone know who was in charge of the game.

As the game drew to it's conclusion, Jamie Smith was pushed forward as an extra attacker given the lack of threat coming from Queen's on the left flank and the former Spider nearly gained his seventh goal of the season with a looping header which bounced onto the top of Graeme Smith's crossbar on its way over. 

No-one should blame the Queen's coach for this heavy defeat with so little by way of resources to choose from, but having seen things start so badly, why not admit to himself that he had got it wrong and change things before they got even worse instead of waiting until they were five down at the interval to try to sort it out. It was almost amusing to hear him ask shell-shocked youngsters on three separate occasions, "What's wrong?" when the response, "We're five down, boss!" would have provided sufficient response.

Cowboy is very much his own man and his refusal to have a no. 2 at his side throughout his coaching career means that there is no-one to challenge his view of things. That's fine when he get's it right but it is a major problem when he doesn't and, with all respect to those concerned, what tactical nuances do Ronnie Cant (goalkeeping coach), The Doc and Bob Findlay have between them? Who then did Cowboy have to turn to when answers to the following questions needed to be answered?

It would be nice if explanations to these issues were provided to those supporters who fork out considerable sums to support the team at these most distant of Scottish football outposts, and who against their better judgement, but with great loyalty will surely do so again at Peterhead this coming Saturday. They deserve to be told, but no doubt the official website and programme will contain something along the lines of the following:

It is disappointed that we got off to such a poor start up at Brechin but,with such an experimental side, it was perhaps understandable. Once we came to terms with the pace of the game, we were more than a match for our opponents and were unlucky not to score ourselves.

Whilst that may wash with the more gullible of our support, those who were there know better and the truth is that even when Brechin took their foot off the pedal, they could easily have added to their tally. Judging by the genuine scoring opportunities detailed above, 8 - 3 would probably have been a more realistic scoreline.

Tuesday night brings the last of our midweek postponements, a home fixture against Dumbarton. Let's hope that youth is given a fling so that, even if another defeat is suffered, we will at least be given the chance to view some more of the emerging talent coming from our much vaunted youth set-up. It has already produced Collins, Sinclair, Canning, Martin and Gemmell.

Let's see what's out there!

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE : 3/5    STAR SPIDER : Ross Caven

QUEEN’S PARK : Graeme Smith, James Bruce, Liam McVey, Neil Collins, Ross Caven, Stewart Orr (Jim Brown - 57), Paul Patterson, Johnny Whelan, Ross Jackson (Chris Fisher - 63), Stephen Canning, Willie Martin (John Gemmell - 52)

BRECHIN CITY : Kevin McKeown, Jamie Smith, Derek Clark, Kevin Bain (Jamie Ewart - 73), Harry Cairney, Kevin Fotheringham, Charlie King, Paul Riley (Darren Smith - 67, Roddy Grant (Paul Campbell - 67), Chris Templeman, Greg Miller