FALKIRK 4-2 QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 10th January 2009


TEAM LINE-UP


           
Robinson


           
McLauchlan
           
Lancaster
         
Barr
       
Harris


S1          
Robertson
S3 1    
Wilson
           
Macfarlane
S2          
Tosh
           
McQuilken


           
Kean


SUBSTITUTES


S1 - 73        
O'Connor
S2 - 73        
Dobbie
S3 - 85        
Burns
           
Reid
           
Halliwell


MATCH REPORT
Queens Team:
1 L Robinson, 2 G McLaughlan, 3 R Harris, 4 N MacFarlane, 5 C Barr, 6 M Lancaster, 7 B Wilson, 8 S Tosh, 9 S Kean, 10 S Robertson, 11 J McQuilken
Subs: 12 B Halliwell, 14 S Dobbie, 15 S O'Connor, 16 P Burns, 17 C Reid
 
Falkirk Team:
1 R Olejnik, 2 L Bullen, 3 T Scobbie, 4 D Barr, 5 J McNamara, 6 K McBride, 7 N McCann, 8 S Arfield, 9 G Barrett, 10 B O'Brien, 11 M Higdon
Subs: 12 D Holden, 14 A Riera, 15 C Finnigan, 16 M Stewart, 17 M Andrews (GK)
 
This time last year Queens were easing past Linlithgow Rose in the fog at Palmerston near the beginning of a path that would lead ultimately to Hampden twice and Copenhagen of all places! Would this much more difficult task at Falkirk lead to anything even remotely similar? Gordon Chisholm named just 4 of the players who started against Rangers that sunny day in May in his starting line up, Bob Harris, Neil MacFarlane, Steve Tosh and Jamie McQuilken, injury having ruled out Jim Thomson. Queens were 4-5-1 with debuts for Gerry McLaughlan and Martyn Lancaster at the back. There was good news on the bench where Paul Burns made his return from injury and was alongside the cup final front pairing of Dobbie and O'Connor as well as Reid and Halliwell. John Hughes named a side along familiar lines that included internationals Darren Barr, Jackie McNamara and Neil McCann. McNamara of course was part of the Aberdeen side that lost to Queens in last year's semi final.
 
The match began in atrocious conditions with Queens playing into the face of driving wind and rain. Three minutes in Barrett latched onto Higdon's flick on and had a sight of Robinson's goal but he dallied too long in getting a shot away and was closed down by McLaughlan. Seconds later Barrett seemed destined to score with a header from McNamara's cross but Robinson tipped over at the last second. It was all Falkirk at this point, assisted greatly by the weather conditions and soon Robinson had to move smartly to head the ball away from Barrett as he ran in on goal. Queens weathered the early storm though (if you will pardon the pun!) and Stevie Tosh had our first shot on 13 minutes although it went wide of target.
 
The match settled into a dull midfield battle for a time after that, mostly ruined by the weather, but on 37 minutes the home side made the breakthrough in controversial circumstances. The ball was running off towards the goal line chased by Graham Barrett who probably wasn't going to catch it when he tumbled to the ground with Craig Barr running behind him. Referee Charlie Richmond had no doubts and pointed straight to the penalty spot indicating a pull by Barr. Protests were to no avail and indeed Barr got booked for the offence for good measure. Scott Arfield is Falkirk's penalty taker and he coolly despatched the ball behind Robinson to open the scoring.
 
Queens hit back in some style though and equalised virtually straight away. For once into the wind they managed to put together half a dozen passes that ended with Stevie Tosh laying the ball off for Barry Wilson to lash the ball into the net from 20 yards via a big deflection. It's been a fine start at his new club for the former Caley player! In the immediate aftermath of the restart Michael Higdon was booked for a bad challenge on Wilson. There were no further chances on goal though and Queens had to be happy having played into the wind and rain to make half time level.
 
Neither team made any half time changes and within seconds Queens grabbed the lead. Stewart Kean was fouled on the edge of the penalty area and when Tosh tapped the free kick to the side, Robert Harris lashed the ball into the net. The lead lasted less than a minute though as Falkirk attacked up the left side and, when the defence failed to cut out Neil McCann's cross, Scott Arfield popped up to side foot in his second goal of the day from 15 yards, giving Lee Robinson no chance.
 
After that whirlwind start to the second period things calmed down a little, the next chance falling to Kean but he failed to hit the target from 18 yards. At the other end Higdon was next to fluff his chance from a similar distance. On 63 minutes Bullen's cross was headed narrowly wide on the run by Higdon as Falkirk continued to push forward into a wind that had eased considerably since the interval. Up the other end though Kean's nodded effort was saved by Olejnik and, on the break, Barry Wilson was booked for a foul on McCann. John Hughes made his first change then with Mark Stewart replacing Burton O'Brien. And Falkirk immediately grabbed the lead. Neil McCann was given far too much time to shape a cross into the box and a Darren Barr shot was parried out by Robinson only for Graham Barrett to reach the rebound first and turn it home.
 
This called for emergency measures and so, with 17 minutes to go, Stephen Dobbie and Sean O'Connor were introduced for Tosh and Robertson and Queens moved into a 4-3-3 formation. Soon after Barry Wilson fired one over but there was an incredible let off at the other end when Higdon's header struck the bar and the rebound dropped perfectly for the Scouser who somehow instead spooned the ball over the bar from inside the six yard box under pressure from Gerry McLaughlan. On 78 minutes one time Queens target Carl Finnegan replaced Michael Higdon and seconds later Lee Bullen was replaced by Dean Holden. In between time Stewart Kean rose to head a great O'Connor cross wide of target. The match was ended as a contest though on 80 minutes as Mark Stewart bustled his way through a couple of challenges and squared the ball to Graham Barrett who could hardly miss from where he was. Bob Harris was booked for dissent in the aftermath on the say so of the near-side assistant but to be fair he had a point as tv replays later showed Stewart to have blatantly pulled McLaughlan back by his shirt during the run into the penalty area. Moments later Barrett burst through again and went to ground in the penalty area only to see Charlie Richmond waving a yellow card at him when he got up. A dive it was adjudged.
 

Stewart went close again shortly after when his shot came back off the stanchion behind the goal and Paul Burns came on as sub in place of Barry Wilson. There was no further goalmouth action though apart from a Dobbie snapshot deep into injury time that landed on the roof of the net. Sadly this year's Scottish Cup campaign ends in the same month it began though it was an encouraging performance.

Ewan Lithgow