St JOHNSTONE 0-0 QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 6th December 2008


TEAM LINE-UP


           
Bell


           
Barr
         
Thomson
         
Aitken


         
Burns
           
Macfarlane
           
Simmons
           
Tosh
           
McQuilken


S1          
O'Connor
           
Kean


SUBSTITUTES


S1 - 46        
Dobbie
           
Weatherson
           
Kinniburgh
           
Robertson
           
Halliwell


MATCH REPORT


Queens Team:
1 C Bell, 2 C Barr, 3 J McQuilken, 4 N MacFarlane, 5 A Aitken, 6 J Thomson, 7 P Burns, 8 S Tosh, 9 S O'Connor, 10 S Simmons, 11 S Kean
Subs: 12 B Halliwell, 14 S Dobbie, 15 D Weatherston, 16 S Robertson, 17 S Kinniburgh
 
St Johnstone Team:
1 A Main, 2 G Irvine, 3 L Craig, 4 J Morris, 5 K Rutkiewicz, 6 S McCaffrey, 7 C Millar, 8 M Hardie, 9 D Holmes, 10 S Milne, 11 C Samuel
Subs: 12 S Anderson, 14 P Sheerin, 15 J Hillcoat, 16 K Moon, 17 P MacDonald
 
The Queens team showed four changes from that which lost to Clyde on its last outing and a change to a 3-5-2 formation with Burns and McQuilken in the wing-back positions. Back into the side came Craig Barr, Andy Aitken, Stephen Simmons and Stewart Kean in place of Parratt, Sives, Weatherston and Dobbie. The latter two were on the bench along with new loan signing from Rangers, Stephen Kinniburgh. Craig Sives has now returned to Hearts at the end of his loan spell but there was no place in the sixteen for Parratt. St Johnstone were along expected lines with an attacking line up in the only first division game to survive the frost thanks to the Perth club's undersoil heating. Even so the pitch showed obvious frost in the centre.
 
Queens started brightly and the match was less than two minutes old when O'Connor turned Gary Irvine inside out and cut the ball back for Stevie Tosh to strike wide of target across the face of goal. Five minutes later Queens had the ball in the net when Jim Thomson smashed home Barr's header across goal from a Tosh free kick but referee Mike Tumilty spotted a push by Barr and disallowed the goal. St Johnstone showed for the first time of note on 12 minutes when Steven Milne's completely mis-hit shot fell perfectly into the path of Derek Holmes twelve yards out but the big striker blasted wide of target. Seconds later Paul Burns was booked for a foul on Hardie.
 
The next half hour or so saw little in the way of chances as St Johnstone gradually began to take more control of the ball in the middle of the park. The next significant chance of note though arrived on 38 minutes when Jim Thomson beat Alan Main to head goalward from a corner but Stewart Kean's diving header only succeeded in diverting the ball narrowly wide of target instead of into the net. Two minutes later at the other end Andy Aitken moved smartly and threw himself in the way to deflect a Milne drive over the bar but in the end Queens saw it through to half time scoreless in relative comfort.
 
Queens made a half time change, with Stephen Dobbie replacing Sean O'Connor up front in partnership with Kean but we had hit the hour mark before anything of note actually happened in the half. The home side thought they had opened the scoring though when Milne seized on a charged down Craig shot and fired a curling effort goalward. Cammy Bell could only watch but the ball curled agonisingly past the post the right side for Queens and the wrong side for Saints. On 63 minutes Collin Samuel got away from Andy Aitken down the right side for the first time all game and the centre half felt he had no option but to haul him down from behind. A booking of course followed!
 
Queens had another huge let off in 67 minutes when Bell spilled Irvine's low cross from the right and Chris Millar thought he had opened the scoring from the rebound only for Bell to pull off an amazing reaction block to redeem himself. Derek McInnes thought the time was right for a change so on came Peter MacDonald for Derek Holmes in 70 minutes. Two minutes later Neil MacFarlane produced a fine defensive block to deny another opening. St Johnstone made another change in the 80th minute with Kevin Moon replacing Chris Millar and four minutes later Jody Morris fired in a dangerous shot that had Bell throwing himself to his right, though it missed the target.
 
Seconds later came the game's big controversy. Cammy Bell collected an overhit through ball and, having got to his feet, bounced the ball once only for Steven Milne to nip in and poke the ball into the net. Referee Mr Tumilty was having none of it though. Defining the ball has having been "in the goalkeeper's control" he ruled a foul and free kick to Queens much to Milne's annoyance. St Johnstone were straight back on the attack and Jim Thomson collected our third booking for an "industrial" challenge on Irvine as he tried to burst clear. The resulting free kick from the edge of the box was blocked by the wall and Morris fired the rebound narrowly over. The little midfielder was getting more and more involved at this point and was booked shortly after for exhibiting his dissent when a foul was given against him.
 
With two minutes remaining Simmons sent Dobbie clear down the right and it looked like we might even snatch the points but the angle wasn't great by the time he got to goal and Main blocked with his legs. Moments later Aitken survived a big handball shout. To be fair the ball did look like it struck his arm but it was by his side and certainly ball to arm.
 
In the end Queens will be grateful for the 0-0 draw at what has become a bit of a bogey ground lately as it halts an alarming run of defeats.