Queen of the South had Steve Bowey in their team, which wasn't good, and Brian McLaughlin, which also wasn't good. Unfortunately, none of the Saints players did what I had hoped and punted them over the stand in the first half. Shame.
The first half was decent, compared to recent games at Love Street, but nothing exciting. Saints had most of the possession but very few clear cut chances; Kirk Broadfoot and Mark Reilly both having efforts cleared off the line. Queen of the South went closest to opening the scoring, McLaughlin forcing Craig Hinchcliffe into another of his (usual) superb saves. The only other thing of note was QOS goalkeeper Colin Scott getting a talking too for time wasting. Timewasting after 25 minutes at 0-0 is a new one on me, I must admit.
The second half came to life almost immediatly, and within ten minutes QOS were 2-0 up, despite having rarely threatened in the previous 50 minutes. First Andy Millen and Captain Chaos decided to have a wee chat instead of clearing the ball, leaving Derek Lyle to storm in on goal and finish well for his first goal since his return from Dunfermline. It got worse just minutes later, when McLaughlin split the defence open and Bowey slotted it into the bottom corner. Oh dear.
Maybe our problem was that the defenders were all up the other end of the park scoring. Well, Kirk Broadfoot was doing that at least. His first came almost straight away, when he took the ball past Colin Scott (who had finally been booked for timewasting) and slide it in after collecting Mixu Paatelainen's knock down. His second came nearly fifteen minutes later, when Ellis' cross was nocked back into the danger area by Mixu, cleared in Captain CHaos style and Kirk hammered it home. Nice one big man.
Both team had chances to win the match but didn't take them. Saints could have had a last minute penalty, when David van Zanten was flattened in the box before a clear hand ball just minutes later. Queen of the South continued to time waste, Scott somehow avoiding a second yellow and their subs taking for ever to go off. God knows why, as they are by far the best first division side I've seen at Love Street this season.
A point was probably fair in the end, it's just annoying that we dropped it on the same day Falkirk and Clyde both slipped up. Ah well, on to Airdrie we go.