Day Twenty One: Queen's Park (Hampden Park)

Queen's Park v Albion Rovers

Scottish Division 3

Saturday 13th November

So here we are; five months in and we're half way through our adventure and what better place to celebrate it than at Hampden Park? Granted, it won't be the full Tartan Army experience but I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

We're off to watch Queen's Park, the oldest side in Scottish football (formed in 1867) and the only amateur side playing in the professional leagues in Britain. The club's motto reflects this: Ludere Causa Ludendi. Which means: to play for the sake of playing.

For the first time in a while, I'm almost on time to meet my dad for the drive through to Glasgow. As is now the norm, we listen to Radio Scotland's 'Off the Ball' on the drive through, although it isn't up to it's normal high quality, mainly due to the fact that motormouth Archie MacPherson was one of the guests.

We arrive at the national stadium bang on 2pm and decide it's far too cold outside to venture into the ground straight away. As we're not sure which turnstiles will be open we ask at the main reception and while we're there we ask to be directed to the club shop. I think the fella on the desk may have misheard as he directs us downstairs to the Scotland shop. No Queen's Park stuff on sale here and asking the bloke on the desk for directions to the is like pulling teeth - painful. 'Go and ask upstairs' says the moody bugger. Turns out the Queen's Park shop is inside the stadium and not at the reception area.

After finding our way to the correct turnstile I'm amazed to find that it's only going to cost my dad £2 to get in, 2 quid!! I quickly inform him that he's going to be buying the pies when we do get inside.

When we do get inside it's weird, the stadiums massive, way too big for a Division 3 side. We've entered through turnstile P for goodness sake, how many other sides in this division are going to have so many turnstiles. It's the only one open mind.

This is the first ground we've been at that has a television inside showing live football, so while my dad buys himself a pin badge and two pies I watch Man United stage another of their late comebacks and draw two each with Aston Villa.

The pie turns out to be a decent effort, it's piping hot but is let down by his 'greasy bottom', so says my dad.

We make our way to our chosen seat for the game and it's only when we get in you notice the insignificance of only 400 or so folks in a ground that holds 52,000. The two sets of supporters sit within four sections of each other, the home and away fans are separated by plastic tape. Queen's Park home games must be the easiest games for the stewards at Hampden; in fact it seems as there are more ball boys than stewards.

Before the game kicks off we all stand for a minute's silence in respect of Remembrance Sunday.

The Albion Rovers fans are the first to sing us a song, which for the first ten minutes is the only excitement of the game. That and the fact that when the ball gets booted out of the pitch on the other side of the ground it takes two or three minutes for it to be found.

First chance falls to Queen's Paul Harkins when he dinks the ball over the static Albion defence and runs on to it himself and it takes a cracking challenge from Reid to clear it. The first shot on goal doesn't come until twenty minutes in but Ian Watt hits it straight at Gaston in the Albion goal.

It's all Queens and Watt is finding space and as a result he's getting a lot of the ball. After he makes a quick burst down the left wing, he squares a great ball straight to the feet of the on-coming Tony Quinn, whose shot is nearer the corner flag than the goal.

This seems to sum up the performance of both teams so far. Decent build-up play but in front of goal they offer nothing.

Albion are pretty poor and it seems like they've not improved since we saw them the other week being beat by Sunnybank in the Scottish Cup. Only Gemmell and Love show any sign of offering anything going forward. It takes until the final minute of the half for Albion to have their first shot on goal, and that comes from a free kick. And, I might add, a free kick that in my and every home fan in the grounds' mind shouldn't have been awarded. Referees have been given a hard time recently but this one - David Somers - made some poor decisions throughout the game.

Gemmell hits his free kick straight into the wall and then hammers the rebound straight into the chest of the the Queens' keeper Adam Strain.

At half time I nip down and purchase us some more nourishment and while I'm down there I take in some of the many photos on the walls showing Scotland perform throughout the years.

Within the first minute of the second half Queens have the ball in the net when Watt runs onto a through ball and curls it into the top corner. I'm as surprised as he is to hear the referee's whistle and see the linesman's flag up for offside; as he was clearly onside when he scored.

There's a gent sat four or five seats to our left who has been talking to himself throughout the game and he is outraged at the decision. One minute he's full of praise for the Queens team, the next he's throwing dog's abuse at the players. We reckon that he used to come with some friends but over the years they've moved away, unable to cope with his 'passion' for the team. At one point even the steward near us looks over and clocks him and she looks as nervous as we do.

A free kick is floated into the Albion penalty box after the hour mark and somehow Meggatt manages to head the ball straight into the ground at his feet instead of goal wards. Substitute Smith then has the best moment of the game so far when he goes on a run beating three or four Albion defenders before hitting a weak shot towards goal. That pretty much summed up the game so far, all talk and no action.

After this the Albion manager throws on a few substitutes in an effort to liven up his team's performance and it is one of these subs who turns the game in their favour. With twenty minutes to go, the Queen's defence give Gemmell too much time to shoot and although his effort was blocked, it fell to Hamilton who lashed the ball home into far corner with a sweet right footed drive.

The home fans and especially the bloke beside us were incensed at the fact that they had gone behind and many called for the manager to make substitutions and change things up.

Queen's won themselves a corner after a goal-bound shot was headed clear. From the corner Meggatt put a free header a yard or two over the bar. Watt was then taken out by Donnelly as he sprinted down the wing towards the penalty box. Many of the home fans were calling for a red card but that would have been a bit harsh. My dad and I agreed that bringing the boy down was the right thing to do as Watt would have been in on goal otherwise.

Queen's hit the free kick straight into the arms of the keeper who then booted a huge clearance forward. The ball took one bounce over the defence and Gemmell was through with only the keeper to beat. Instead of taking time to control it, he took the ball on the bounce and tried to lob the keeper and only managed to hit it well over the bar. A bit of composure and he could have wrapped things up for Albion.

In the final minutes Eaglesham raced onto a blocked Albion clearance and looked certain to even things up but the Albion keeper made a brave diving save at his feet.

When the referee blew for full time the restless natives called for the committee to make management changes.

Neither team really deserved to win this game, Albion were really poor in the first half and showed very little in the second whereas Queen's had plenty of the ball but did absolutely nothing with it once they got in to the penalty box.

Here's hoping that this isn't the last time we're back at Hampden this season, maybe one of our teams will make it to a cup final. Aberdeen are in the semi's of the League Cup and who knows they may turn their fortunes around and meet Kilmarnock in this seasons Scottish Cup Final - well you've got to have a dream eh!!?

The Statistics

Ticket: Adult £11, Concession £2

Programme: £2

Attendance: 529

Pie: £1.60

Pie Marks: 7 / 10

Man of the Match: Dad - Robert Love (Albion Rovers) Me - Ian Watt (Queen's Park)

Final Score: Queen's Park 0 v Albion Rovers 1

Mileage: 97 miles

Fascinating Fact of the Day: Diego Maradona scored his first goal for Argentina at Hampden Park in a 3-1 victory over Scotland in June 1979.

Next Game: Excelsior Stadium (Airdrie United)