League Cup 2018/19 Group G

[MJC]

Absolutely unacceptable result and performance today and no justification or.excuse will cover that.

If anything we were lucky to take it to penalties and that in itself is shocking against a side that we should be beating. 

It might be early doors but there are worrying signs for the season ahead. No flair or quality added to attack, only Connor fucking Sammon; struggling against Stranraer and losing on penalties and we are now up against it big time to stay in the Cup.

QoS on Tuesday night will be a very tough one and I for one don't fancy our chances there.

Not fucking good enough Motherwell.

[Skyline Drifter]

Difficult so early in proceedings ( I don't like playing the first 4 and having matchday 5 off) but.......

As everyone has already gathered. We need 1 point to win the group, but probably not be seeded.
3 points wins the group and guarantees seeding pretty much (it's possible for 4 other groups to have a 12 point winner but even in that unlikely event, it's extremely unlikely all 4 would have a GD of at least +10).
A win on penalties leading to 11 pts is probably about 50/50 to leave us seeded or not.

If we lose to Motherwell then as long as we're not hounded by 4 or 5 goals then it will likely still be enough for a best runner up spot. 9 pts and a GD of at least +5 will likely be enough to beat the runners up in groups A, B and C for a start (especially if Hearts are docked points on Monday). It would also keep us above the runner up in Group F unless Annan go to Airdrie and win and above the runner up in group E unless Ayr and Thistle draw.
It's likely two teams in Group H will reach 10 pts and reasonably likely the runner up in Group D will either also have 10 pts or have 9 and a high GD.

[tamthebam]

another first half tanking for the City... ho hum at least it was nice and sunny. Queens scored some nice goals on the counter and if Dumfries wasn't miles away from Edinburgh I'd probably go and watch them as I liked the look of the team. 

 

[Swello]

Pretty awful stuff yesterday - every bit as bad as we were against Edinburgh City at this point last season but without the last minute winner to save our blushes this time.  I thought Stranraer did well though - stood up well to us and created a few chances and couldn't have been grudged the 3 points if it had worked out that way. 

It's difficult to look too deeply into these games given that they exist in a twilight zone between pre-season and "the real stuff". For example, Frear would never have been dropped after scoring a hatrick in the previous game were this further into the season. That said, we did look  to lack any sort of creativity until he came on and we seem to be lacking options despite the big squad.

I expect - given QotS have been skittling everyone in the group - that we'll put as close to our 1st team out as possible on Tuesday...

Also  - that was my third time at Stair Park - great wee ground, always worth the trip...

[capt_oats]

LOLZ

[Casagolda]

Those highlights don’t really do the game justice to be fair.

It makes it look like Stranraer scored against the run of play with their first attack of the 2nd half but there were at least 2 or 3 chances before the goal including a smart save by Carson that have been carefully edited out. Anyone at the game would tell you it had been coming and was more than deserved.  

The boy Layne up front had a field day and bullied Hartley/Kipre all afternoon. Hartley looked like someone who hadn’t kicked a ball in 6 months to be fair cause he was miles off the pace- decision making and timing was well out. Kipre looked like he was playing well within himself although Robinson did suggest afterwards he was carrying an injury.

Was worrying just how easily Stranraer nullified us, as our predicable long ball tactics were snuffed out with minimal fuss. They suffocated Main/Sammon who lacked support and service. Robinson’s last throw of the dice to chuck on Bowman for Sammon made absolutely no sense to me, as he was just going to encounter the same problems.

Horses for courses and all that but surely we didn’t need McHugh, Grimshaw and Rose all on the park at the same time for a game like this? While our only 2 fit technically gifted, creative midfielders were sat in the stand. 

[SUPERSOUTH]

So far so good for Queens would like to see the manager sign another forward and another winger, hopefully if we qualify for the knock out stages this could free up a little money to boost the squad for the league campaign. Prob a couple of loan signings would be good. 

[mjw]

A 'must win' game for Motherwell in July coming up it seems.
It doesn't seem that long since our last 'must win' games either.

[Fae_the_'briggs]

I thought all the new boys showed up well yesterday. 

Semple was strong in defence against a physical City front man 

Doyle was hardworking and creative in midfield and was unlucky not to chip in with a goal,  maybe not as impressive back in defence after half-time but the game was effectively over by then 

Harkins again showed he has plenty of skill and excellent work rate,   hopefully his interest level stays high. 

Todd (not technically a new boy I suppose)  was the pick of the bunch. Great touches of skill,  looked to take men on and create chances.  Worked his socks off and chipped in with a goal. MoM performance for me. 

Overall a good team performance,  got the game wrapped up by half-time and able to play possession football after the break. 

Motherwell will hit back like a cornered animal on Tuesday after their result yesterday and we should expect them  to be a much  different proposition than Edinburgh City but we have talent enough to give them a hard game.  

[Skyline Drifter]

42 minutes ago, Fae_the_'briggs said:

Doyle was hardworking and creative in midfield and chipped in with a goal, 

He did what?

[welldaft]

2 hours ago, Fae_the_'briggs said:

I thought all the new boys showed up well yesterday. 

Semple was strong in defence against a physical City front man 

Doyle was hardworking and creative in midfield and chipped in with a goal,  maybe not as impressive back in defence after half-time but the game was effectively over by then 

Harkins again showed he has plenty of skill and excellent work rate,   hopefully his interest level stays high. 

Todd (not technically a new boy I suppose)  was the pick of the bunch. Great touches of skill,  looked to take men on and create chances.  Worked his socks off.  MoM candidate. 

Overall a good team performance,  got the game wrapped up by half-time and able to play possession football after the break. 

Motherwell will hit back like a cornered animal on Tuesday after their result yesterday and we should expect them  to be a much  different proposition than Edinburgh City but we have talent enough to give them a hard game.  

I would like to think we will up our game on Tuesday but if QOS score 1st it could be a long night. Dunfermline beat Dundee and Raith drew with Hearts, so I would expect a team from one league below to give us a tough game regardless. We are not Celtic ! 

I wonder whether us getting only one point at the weekend will be a good thing. We know what is at stake and I hope the players turn in a performance.  

 

[Fae_the_'briggs]

2 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

He did what?

Don't know what you could possibly  mean SD.  Please refer to my post.  

 

 

 

 

(Ok, with the aid of electronic editing I corrected my glaring error. I don't think many noticed though.  Drat,  welldaft  has included the full post. 

[Priti priti priti Patel]

Highlights of City v South available here...

 

[die hard doonhamer]

48 minutes ago, Margaret Thatcher said:

Highlights of City v South available here...

 

Good to have a commentator, shame he only half researched though. Only Dobbie's 60th goal in Queen's colours, apparently.

 

ETA: other than that, impressive highlight package.

[19QOS19]

I would like to think we will up our game on Tuesday but if QOS score 1st it could be a long night. Dunfermline beat Dundee and Raith drew with Hearts, so I would expect a team from one league below to give us a tough game regardless. We are not Celtic ! 
I wonder whether us getting only one point at the weekend will be a good thing. We know what is at stake and I hope the players turn in a performance.  
 

I wouldn't be so pessimistic. If we take an early lead it'd be far from over. We are incapable of holding on to a 1-0. It'll be our first real test for our defence I'd imagine. Hopefully the scare against Stranraer has woken them up though.

[Priti priti priti Patel]

7 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

1 hour ago, welldaft said:

I would like to think we will up our game on Tuesday but if QOS score 1st it could be a long night. Dunfermline beat Dundee and Raith drew with Hearts, so I would expect a team from one league below to give us a tough game regardless. We are not Celtic ! 
I wonder whether us getting only one point at the weekend will be a good thing. We know what is at stake and I hope the players turn in a performance.  
 

I wouldn't be so pessimistic. If we take an early lead it'd be far from over. We are incapable of holding on to a 1-0. It'll be our first real test for our defence I'd imagine. Hopefully the scare against Stranraer has woken them up though.

Just based on the highlights posted above I would expect our defense to struggle. That's not a criticism so much as I am happy with the mantra 'score a few, concede a few' this season. But even Edinburgh City looked able to consistently pull them all over the place and out of position with a few sideways passes at the 30/40 yard mark, and the central area in front of the box looked to be vacated any time City came down the wing. Can only speak on the basis of the highlights though, as I wasn't there.

[19QOS19]

Would be pretty raging if I was Dobbs. Antell has both sets of fingertips on the ball but he's hardly in control of the ball. Not sure that was the correct call.

Great control from him and Dykes for their first.

[Skyline Drifter]

1 hour ago, die hard doonhamer said:

Good to have a commentator, shame he only half researched though. Only Dobbie's 60th goal in Queen's colours, apparently.

 

ETA: other than that, impressive highlight package.

It is. And  although its a reasonably obvious error about Dobbie's totals, it does highlight his incredible ratio since returning. 60 goals in 87 games! 

If I was to nit pick though (and we know I like that sort of thing), the looping 1st half header that missed the top corner was from Fordyce, not Stirling. The great save late on by Antell was from a Dykes header and therefore did not "deny Dobbie his hat trick". Todd made absolutely no claim at all for a penalty when he said he did. He lost his balance, knew he did, got up and played on.

And like 19QOS19, I still think the decision to rule out Dobbie's potential hat trick was very harsh. Hope qualification doesnt come down to that non goal!

[qos_75]

14 hours ago, 19QOS19 said:

Would be pretty raging if I was Dobbs. Antell has both sets of fingertips on the ball but he's hardly in control of the ball. Not sure that was the correct call.

Great control from him and Dykes for their first.

From his comments at the time, he was very disappointed, shall we say. 

Rightly so, in my opinion.

[palmy_cammy]

Saturday was quite a funny game, we only really played well for the 15 minutes we got the goals but that was enough to kill the game.  It's a really good habit we are in of scoring goals in quick succession, and long may it continue.

Early on I felt Edinburgh City were the brighter team, and they put a lot of good balls into the box that we just about managed to deal with.  The pitch looked heavy and slow and our players certainly took time to adapt to this.  Whether the decision to go route-one for the first two goals was as a conscious one due to this or not, only the players could say, but it certainly paid off with two excellent long range passes and two great pieces of control and finishing.

As expected the second half was a bit of a non-event with Dobbie's disallowed goal the main talking point.  I thought at the time that Antell had let it slip from his grasp and the highlights suggest that as well.  The chat behind the goal, including a supporter who is a referee,  was that he only needs to have one hand on the ball for it to be deemed under his control, so perhaps it was the right call.

Tuesday should be a really interesting barometer of where we are just now, against a top team, I'm looking forward to seeing how we do.  There shouldn't be much pressure on us so hopefully we can put in a good showing.