Montrose 0 Queen of the South 0

This was the first regular league meeting with Queen of the South since 1996 but both teams were missing some key players for this game. Montrose were without the tenacity of Terry Masson in midfield, the guile of Michael Gardyne and the striking and non-stop fitness of Craig Johnston up front. On the plus side they had a strong looking subs bench on which Matty Allan made a welcome return. The Mo lined up in red shirts and the referee was Duncan Williams.

The early action saw Lyons almost in on goal but was thwarted before he could get his shot away. It was Lyons again a minute later who netted but the flag had already gone up with Webster offside. With the changes made to the starting line-up Webby was further forward to support the target man McAllister up top.

Queens first flurry forward ended in a corner which Waddell cleared upfield to McAllister who was promptly yellow carded for trying to wrestle the ball away from his marker.

Shortly after the Queens bench had a yellow card shown their way presumably for an off-field infringement.

As the 20-minute mark was reached Queens were starting to boss midfield and with McAllister being covered by his marker it was left to Lyons to make inroads for the Mo. Queens were having a go for the opening goal but Ross Sinclair was up to the task for Montrose even though a rasping shot hit the side netting from Murray. Lyons was next to see yellow as his mistimed tackle was punished and the free kick was headed over by East from close range.

Then a great chance for the MO when Lyons was felled in the area and referee Williams pointed straightaway to the penalty spot in the 32nd minute. Up stepped Webster and although he struck it well the keeper Currie made a fantastic save and the chance was gone.

Leading up to half-time Queens had two corners which Sinclair dealt with comfortably despite being constantly impeded by a Queens player close up. McMahon of Queens was yellow carded before another corner for his side was wasted and the half ended at 0-0

For the second half Montrose made a change with Quinn on for Callaghan to strengthen the defence and allow Webster and young Mackinnon to get forward more but it was still Queens who tended to boss midfield and who looked to more of a threat going forward. That said, it was Montrose who had the first real chance of the second half when Lyons and Webster combined before the final shot was deflected for a corner from which Lyons hit his shot over the top and had his ‘head in his hands’ knowing it was a good chance.

McAllister then laid it off for Milne who also hit his shot too high.

Queens rode their luck and came back strongly, too strongly for referee Williams who showed a yellow card to Cochrane and from the free kick McAllister had his shot saved by Currie. 57 minutes gone and Queens made their first change with McMahon replaced by Wilson as they won two successive corners from going through the middle having two efforts deflected. Sinclair did well by pushing one effort at full stretch for another corner then the Mo made a further change on 72 minutes with Brown on for Whatley to give some more threat up top. Queens made their final change on 74 minutes as Reilly replaced Murray.

Montrose then had a flurry of attacks as a Brown shot was saved the expense of a corner, a Lyons effort also resulted in a corner then another Brown shot went over the bar. Cue the next Mo change when Watson came on for Mackinnon on 79 minutes and immediately afterwards another change was necessary when Quinn was replaced by Matty Allan because of injury. As the game came to a close in stoppage time Paton for Queens shot over the top from a good position, Webster for Montrose was put in by McAllister but keeper Currie saved it and the last effort saw Reilly for Queens see a gap but his shot went well over the top and that was it as it ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

A point for each side as neither could conjure up a winner and Montrose were grateful for Man of the Match performances from Dillon and Waddell at the back along with Sinclair the keeper who were all in determined mood to let nothing past.

Report by Steve Doyle

Team Lineups & Stats

SPFL cinch League 1

Saturday 6th August 2022

21	Ross Sinclair	1	Max Currie
15	Mark Whatley (s72)	3	Rico Quitongo
3	Andrew Steeves (c)	5	Paul McKay
5	Kerr Waddell	6	Harry Cochrane
14	Seán Dillon	7	Ruari Paton (c)
10	Lewis Milne	11	Connor Murray (s74)
20	Adam McKinnon (s79)	12	Ciaran McKenna
19	Liam Callaghan (s46)	14	Stuart Morrison
11	Blair Lyons	16	Euan East
7	Graham Webster	18	Kieran McKechnie
9	Rory McAllister	21	Dom McMahon (s57)
8	Paul Watson (s79)	2	David McKay
17	Aidan Quinn (s46) (s80)	4	Iain Wilson (s57)
4	Matty Allan (s80)	9	Gavin Reilly (s74)
22	Craig Brown (s72)	20	Ross Irving
2	Tristan Baxter	26	Ryan Muir
12	Callum Grant	27	Lewis Gibson
18	Luca Giacomini	28	Ben Johnstone
1	Aaron Lennox (GK)	29	Jay Burns
		13	Tom Ritchie (GK)

Referee:
Duncan Williams

Assistant Referees:
Paul McAvinue, Conor Greenan

Goalscorers:
None

Yellow Cards:
Montrose - Rory McAllister (11), Blair Lyons (31)
Queen of the South - Dom McMahon (43), Harry Cochrane (55)

Red Cards:
None

Attendance:
573