2006/07 Season Review

A serialised account of our season by our man who has been at every match home and away - Ewan Lithgow

Part Five - November

2nd June 2007

The month started perfectly with a comfortable home victory in what was an early season "must win" game against Ross County. Graham Weir's first league goal of the season, a 25-yard free kick, opened the scoring and John O'Neill clinched the win with a header from a Gibson free kick. Just to put the icing on the cake, Steven Tweed scored a last minute winner for a ten man Livingston team at Airdrie and that proved enough to lift us off the bottom for the first time in over a month. O'Neill celebrates his goal against the Staggies.

A week later though everything went pear-shaped again as the trip to Gretna turned into a nightmare for the thousand or so Queens fans in the crowd. A recurring injury to Colin Scott meant BJ Corr was back in goal and sadly the same result as his previous appearance ensued, although this time it certainly wasn't all down to him. He could have done better with the cross ball for the first though which was knocked home by Steve Tosh from the edge of the area when Corr's clearance failed to go far enough. David Graham doubled the lead before Jim Lauchlan was a lucky man not to see red for his "last man" foul on Graham in the penalty box. McMenamin made it 3-0. In the second period Eric Paartalu and McMenamin again made it 5-0 with few redeeming factors to be found for any Queens fan. At least another defeat for Airdrie at Hamilton meant we stayed in 9th spot. Allan Ferguson had featured on the bench against Gretna and through the week McCall stated he would most likely be signed in the next 7 days or so whilst heading in the other direction was John Henry, whose move to Queens had not worked out. The player opted to leave immediately rather than hang around until the window. Another crucial development in the week was the fairly unexpected sacking of Sandy Stewart by Airdrie United. Kenny Black replaced him and we waited for the usual boost to teams changing management to occur.

By Saturday the heavens had opened and the game against Dundee at Palmerston only got the go-ahead after two Bowdry machines borrowed from Gretna and manned by Action Group volunteers removed over 900 gallons of surface water from the pitch. The effort proved well worthwhile though as two goals by John O'Neill added another three points to the tally. The first was a penalty awarded for a foul on Weir by Ludovic Roy and the second a cool finish having been set up by Weir following an Alex Rae error. However, the match finished in controversy as Neil Scally got himself involved in a handbags incident with Dundee's Andy McLaren. Despite both players being equally involved at least and both already being on a booking, Scally received his marching orders whilst McLaren received no punishment. The loss of the midfield talisman would be crucial in a week's time. Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, Airdrie bounced back from the change of manager to beat St Johnstone and stay right in touch.

Another win, another celebrating player

Allan Ferguson had been due to sit on the bench again against Dundee but injured himself in warm up, which was the last we saw of him. His potential contract disappearing as quickly as McCall suggested it. Willie Gibson meanwhile spent the next week on trial with Kilmarnock before returning to take his place in the team to face Clyde at Broadwood. Following the Dundee game Gibson had a trial at Kilmarnock.

Having lost the previous two away games 5-0 improvement was needed. We got it, we only lost 4-0! An experimental line up saw Stephen Swift asked to play in a back three and perhaps if it had got to half time playing against the wind at 0-0 we might have done ok. Sadly we lost two silly goals in the final minute of the first half and faced an uphill struggle from then on. Neil McGregor was credited with the first although his effort deflected off Jim Lauchlan on its way in. The second was a Stephen Swift own goal as he tried to prevent Arbuckle from turning in Bryson's cross. In the second half Arbuckle did get on the score sheet when he touched in Imrie's shot before Paul McHale added a 4th from the penalty spot after Lauchlan was adjudged to have fouled Eddie Malone in the box. Fortunately Airdrie went down at Dundee by the only goal though so we finished November in 9th spot, a point above Airdrie but five points adrift of a faltering Ross County side. Ewan Lithgow

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