Annan Athletic had to be content with a share of the points in their first ever visit to the National Stadium. Queens Park dominated the opening half without seriously testing Greg Kelly in the Annan goal but after a lack luste rand dissapointing first half Annan became more of a threat in the second half and could consider themselves unfortunate not to have secured victory after creating three glorious scoring opportunities.
Queens Park controlled the opening 45 minutes and their neat collective football utilising all the playing surface at Hampden looked impressive and had Annan stretched for long periods but despite their clear territorial advantage the spiders found it difficult to penetrate a resolute Annan defence and the outcome was that Greg Kelly in the Annan goal was not seriously tested.
Queens Park constantly probed down both flanks with the influential Chris Hamilton on the right and David Murray on the left looking menacing and dangerous but all too often the final ball into the heart of the Annan defence was predictable and inevitably the danger was cleared.
Annan for their part in a disappointing first half struggled to string any passes together and as a result Scott Black in the Queens Park goal was more or less a spectator who rarely touched the ball.
Manager Harry Cairney not surprisingly changed the formation of his team at the interval in an effort to to combat the threat of the Queens Park wide men with Gary Redpath and Lewis Sloan being introduced for Jack Steele and Graeme Bell. The changes certainly had a positive impact and the Queens Park goal survived a charmed life as Annan went all out to secure victory.
Bryan Gilfillan had a great opportunity to break the deadlock in the 52nd minute when Phil Storey squared the ball into the path of the Annan midfielder and he missed a golden opportunity when his effort was cleared off line.
In the 63rd minute Storey once again was the provider squaring the ball to Mike Jack but once again the ball was miraculously cleared off the goal line. It was a promising start to the second half by Annan who had played second fiddle to Queens Park for long periods of the first half.
Queens Park finished the match the stronger and forced three corners in the closing minutes but the closest they came to scoring was when substitute Frankie Carroll’s back post header went wide of the target.
Annan absorbed the late pressure and in the final seconds of the match sa counter attack produced the best opportunity of the match when Phil Storey was released clean through on goal but with only keeper Scott Black to beat the normally cool Annan striker slipped the ball wide of the target from 8 yards.
The spiders coach Gardner Spiers commented “up to half time we played very well, passed the ball well but never forced the Annan keeper to make a save, we knew that Harry would change things at half time and in the second half Annan rolled their sleeves up and became much more aggressive and created the best chances of the game. I was very pleased with our first half showing but honest enough to admit that we could have lost it. It has been three games since we scored and that is where we have to solve, we defended well but were fortunate at times, the first goal in this division is crucial, we are finding this out to our detriment. It is important to take the lead particularly when we are on top like today, in the first half some of the movement and link play was pleasing and when we step up to the mark to score goals we will start to move up the league.
Annan manager Harry Cairney was disappointed not to have come away from Hampden with all the points. We had the best opportunities in the second half to win the game, the first half was dominated by Queens Park, they gave us a bit of a doing possession wise but the changes at half time were aimed at trying to stop their full backs getting forward. I was a bit disappointed in the end not to come away with all three points but happy at the way we played in the second half.
Queens Park - Black; Ure , Douglas, Walker, Brough, Capuano, Hamilton,Dunlop, Watt (Carroll 77 min) McBride,Murray. Subs not used – Sinclair, McGinn, Lauchlan, McPherson.
Annan Athletic – Kelly, Steele ( Redpath 45 min ), Inglis, Watson, Neilson, Jack, Muirhead, Gilfillan, S. Sloan, Storey, Bell( L Sloan in 45 min). Subs not used – Jardine, Macbeth, Summersgill.
Attendance - 581
Referee – Steven Nicholls. Assistants Frankie Connor and Alistair Kerr. |
