Match Report

Annan Athletic will consider themselves fortunate to have lifted all the points in this match which was very much a game of 2 halves.

Annan boss Peter Murphy after their mid week victory over Celtic in the Irn Bru Cup tie reverted to the same team which defeated Cowdenbeath in their  last league match. Queens Park boss Gus Macpherson was without the services of key players Josh Peters, Dominic McLaren and Calvin McGrory but recent signing from Kilmarnock 20-year-old Scott McLean went straight into the team.

Queens Park started the game playing up the Galabank slope and with the wind in their favour they made it difficult for Annan who never really got to grips with the elements. It took just 13 seconds for the first incident of note, when McKernon made his presence felt too forcefully for the liking of referee Steven Reid and it earned him probably the fastest yellow card of the season.

Kindlan, Osadolor and Roberts all had efforts inside the first 15 minutes as Queens Park went out to break the deadlock, but Mitchell was not really tested. Queens Park did have the ball in the net after 21 minutes when Gibson got his head to McKernon’s free-kick, but the offside flag cut short the celebrations.  The Spiders came close to opening the scoring after 31 minutes when Roberts and Osadolor combined to give McLean the chance but his shot flew just the wrong side of the post.

As the half drew to a close Tommy  Muir was penalized for a late challenge on Gibson. The free kick was defended by Annan but the referees whistle brought to an end a disappointing half from Annan .

If the first half was disappointing for both sets of supporters the second half was not.  The first half had begun with an early bookingfor McKernon,  the second period exploded to  life early with a flurry of goals. Annan started it off when Tommy  Muir capitalised on some slack defending by Queens Park  to fire home inside the first 90 seconds from the edge of the 6 yard box.  Queens Park responded almost immediately when Osadolor rifled the ball into Mitchell’s net from 8 yards after Kurtis Roberts cross caught the Annan defence who did not deal with the cross ball.

Annan went ahead in the 50th minute after Ryan Sinnamon picked up a poor clearance and his well struck shot beat Hart from the edge of the box. Two minutes later Annan increased their lead after a long clearance from Mitchell caused all sorts of problems in the visitors defence after Gibson and Hart failed to deal with the clearance allowing  Aidan Smith to slip in behind them to head the ball into the net giving Annan a 3-1 advantage.

Osadolor was replaced with MacPherson and within a couple of minutes Queens Park  created a good opportunity  when Grant’s cross  was headed into the side netting by Roberts. Annan came close to adding to their tally in the 67th minute when Chris Johnston picked out Aidan Smith but the header crashed off the cross bar. Gerry McLauchlan should have pulled one back in dying minutes for Queens Park when he got his head to a McKernon corner, but his effort failed to hit the target.

Annan boss Peter Murphy was not impressed with his teamsperformance “ I don’t feel it was a deserved win. I was disappointed with my team for 82 minutes of that game. We had a go at them at half time  and got a response for 8 minutes in which we scored three goals but we also conceded one which was sloppy.”

Annan Athletic – Alex Mitchell, Scott Hooper, James Creaney, David Wilson, Ayrton Sonkur, Steven Swinglehurst ( Peter Watson 73 min), Chris Johnston, Ryan Sinnamon, Aidan Smith,Tommy Muir ( Ross Fergusson 70 min),     Scott Roberts {Tony Wallace 60min). Subs not used Trialist GK, Peter Watson, Jack Brannan, Maxwell Wright.

Queens Park – Jordan Hart,  James Grant, Alistair Miller, Jamie McKernon, Gearald McLauchlan, Scott Gibson, Kurtis Roberts, Dean Kindlan (Brendan Sharp 73 min), Smart Osadolor (Ewan Macpherson 55 min), Scott McLean ( Adam Martin 78 min), William McRtimer ,Subs not used. Gavin Lahlan, Cameron Foy, Brendan Sharp, Keiran Moore, Jack Dunlop.

Referee – Stevan Reid​​Assistants – Mark McLean and Craig Macrae.

Crowd 420