By Graeme D. Shields
October 26 2003

Saturday, 25th October, 2003 Elgin City 2 Queen's Park 2 (Bells Scottish League – Third Division) Elgin started the match with former Scotland Goalkeeper Andy Goram in goal as a trialist. They also fielded ex Spiders Willie Martin and Jamie White. Queen’s had Steven Reilly back after his bout of food poisoning in place of the suspended Stuart Kettlewell. Frankie Carroll replaced Stevie McAuley up front.
In the first minute Willie Martin showed his intent to punish Queen’s when he had a snap shot fizz past the post from the edge of the box.
A minute later Ally Graham had a lobbed shot that Goram caught confidently just under his crossbar.
In the 13th minute Richard Sinclair headed straight to Alex Bone who drove a fierce shot that was brilliantly turned round the post by Scrimgour.
A minute later Willie Martin scored for the home side. A crisp low drive from just inside the box gave Srimgour no chance. Elgin deserved their lead at this point and it was fitting that it was their best player that scored.
In 36 minutes the Queen’s goalie looked on anxiously as Neil McLean had a shot just fly past the post.
With just 2 minutes of the half remaining Ross Clark had only the Spiders second shot at goal. It just trickled wide from the edge of the penalty area.
A minute later Jamie White slid into a tackle and he looked to deliberately block the ball with his arm. The referee who was only a few yards away stunned everyone by completely ignoring the incident.
The second half started with Queen’s having more of the possession but not really creating any chances.
In the 59th minute Ritchie ignored another blatant handball as a Graham shot looked goal bound.
With 12 minutes remaining Ross Clark went in late on Neil McLean and all hell broke loose. Every player except Srimgour became involved in a mass brawl with lots of pushing and shoving. It was a bad tackle worthy of a yellow card and nothing more. The Elgin player’s attempts to make more of it were despicable. All credit to Mike Ritchie on this occasion as he refused to be swayed by the home side and only produced the warranted yellow card.
In the 79th minute Richard Sinclair had a great block that prevented Allison from doubling Elgin’s lead.
With just seven minutes on the clock Queen’s equalised. A cross from McAuley found Paddy Gallagher just inside the 6 yard box and he brilliantly guided the ball past Goram.
With just 3 minutes remaining Stevie McAuley looked to have sealed the victory for the Spiders when he scored. Inexplicably Ally McMillan passed the ball straight to the Queen’s substitute and he kept his nerve as he raced clear to place a great shot past the advancing Andy Goram.
As has always been the case with Queen’s Park down the years just when we seem to have the game won we concede a goal. An old fashioned punt up the park from Elgin was dipping under the bar so Scrimgour was forced to tip it over for a corner. From the resulting corner Jamie White beat the Queen’s keeper to the ball and powered in the equaliser. The Queen’s players argued long and hard that it was foul on the keeper but he never went for the ball with any real conviction and it would have been harsh if it had been disallowed.
Over the piece a draw was a fair result. Both teams look to be struggling and seemed reluctant to play any football. We only had 4 shots in 90 minutes and thankfully we scored with 2 of them. Our lack of discipline since Kenny Brannigan has taken over is going to cause us problems in the near future as a lot of our players are close to serving suspensions. I’ve never seen so many players booked for dissent and it is one thing that should be dealt with.

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE : 3/5
STAR SPIDER : Stevie Fallon (If there’s a better sweeper in the Division then I’ve not seen him)
QUEEN’S PARK : Derek Scrimgour, Danny Ferry, John Thomson, Richard Sinclair, Damiano Agostini, Stevie Fallon, Steven Reilly, Ross Clark, Jonny Whelan (Paddy Gallagher – 73), Ally Graham, Frankie Carroll (Stevie McAuley – 57)
Subs (not used) : David Crawford (GK), Stephen Canning, Derek Carcary
Scorer(s) : Gallagher (83 mins), McAuley (87 mins)
Booked : Reilly (34 – bad tackle), Thomson (61- bad tackle), Clark (78 – bad tackle), Agostini (80 – bad tackle), Ferry (90 – dissent), Sinclair (90 – dissent)
ELGIN CITY : Trialist, Hugh Dickson, Craig Campbell, Jamie White, Ally McMillan, John Allsion, Willie Martin, David Hind, Alex Bone, Neil McLean, Ryan McMullan (Chris Ogboke – 69)
Subs (not used) : Peter Hamilton (G/K), John Gallagher, Kevin Steele, Scott Murphy
Scorer(s) : Martin (14 mins), White (90 mins)
Booked : Martin (39 – bad tackle), McMullan (39 – unsporting behaviour), White (44 – bad tackle)
REFEREE : Mike Ritchie ** (* = inept, ** = poor, *** = mediocre, **** = good, ***** = excellent)