QUEENS ROUTED BY THE BAIRNS
Last updated : 29 December 2002 By Duke Of Galloway
There was no festive cheer here for Queens as Falkirk handed out what can only be described as a good hiding to a depleted Doonhamers team with Bowey,Neilson and O'Connor all missing. Beleive it or not Queens started off well and Lyle really should have put us ahead but missed a great chance in the opening minutes.The same player also missed a good opportunity later and at this stage there was no indication that a rout was on the cards. Falkirk's pace was beginning to tell however and the panic bells were ringing in the Queen's defence. Queens fragile midfield was putting tremendous pressure on Thomson whose distribution was awful at times. It was no surprise on the 19th minute mark when the powerful
Miller put the Bairns ahead after Coyle's effort had been blocked by a desperate Queens defence. Encouraged by their large support, the Bairns then really put Queens through the mill and
Henry side footed the ball home after 25 minutes to put the home side well in control. Queens tried hard but our lightweight midfield just could not compete against a well drilled Falkirk side. The game was virtually over in 36 minutes when the ever-green
Coyle scored a third after being set up by the impressive Samuel. The healthy away support were understandably subdued at this stage and the vocal support was not up to the usual high standards. The first half ended with Falkirk well in control and the Doonhamers looked a bit shell-shocked.
Half-Time Falkirk 3 Queens 0
Just after half time Samuel added a fourth for Falkirk to kill off sad Queens, shooting low into the net after an assist from Miller. Just to run salt into the gaping wounds in the Queens defence,Samuel rounded off a fabulous Bairns move on 55th minute to put Falkirk 5-0 up. This was John Connolly's heaviest defeat since coming to Queens and he can have no complaints. Our defence looked disjointed and the midfield was posted missing for most of the game. We obviously missed Neilson,Bowey and O'Connor but even if those players had been available we would have been hard pushed to hold the Bairns on this form. Anyway we live to fight another day and no ground has been lost in relation to our rivals in the relegation stakes. Thank god we don't need to play Falkirk every week at Brockville. As JC said on the way home we will regroup at training on Monday evening and hopefully bounce back against the Honest Men at Palmy on New Year's Day. I suggest we put this setback behind us and turn out in our thousands against Ayr.
