Saturday 4th October 2014 Raydale 3pm.
Saturday sees the club take on the most historic
football club in Scotland in the Second Round of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
One hundred and forty one year’s separate the two
clubs with Queens Park, the oldest club side in Scotland having been formed in
1867. Since then the Hampden Park outfit, for long a bastion of amateurism in
the game, have steadily slipped downwards and abandoned the amateur creed in
1998.
Gus McPherson was brought in last season to
resurrect the fortunes of the Spiders following his departure from Queen of the
South, where he worked alongside Stuart Rome. They have continued to struggle
this season but look to have solved their striking problem with the arrival of
Chris Duggan, on loan from Partick Thistle. Gus has assembled the rest of his
squad from the ranks of junior football and young players brought through the
Queens Park ranks.
Stuart Rome’s only selection headache ahead of Saturday
is who to leave out. Stuart was
impressed with the performances of Robson Halliday, Danny Graham and Jordan
Barker who came into the side last week to secure Lowland League points at
Preston Athletic. But he is keeping his cards close to his chest regarding his
starting eleven for the cup match, “the lads did very well but I’ve got a range
of options to choose from. We’ll see how we go during the week before I make my
mind up for our starting eleven.”
As well as competition in the middle of the field,
Graham Wright has returned from holiday to challenge Jamie Greenall for the
goalkeepers berth. Winger David Renyard had another good run out last week to
add to Stuart’s options.
The Gretna squad is certainly buzzing and everyone
was training extra hard during the week to try to catch the Gretna boss’s eye.
Gretna currently sit in mid table following last
week’s 2-0 win. Robson Halliday and Brandon Longcake got the goals that secured
the points. Coincidently Queens Park also occupy the mid table berth following
a 2-0 win, in their case over Berwick Rangers. Deadly Duggan did the damage
last week and he is surely the danger on Saturday.
It should be a good test for the Gretna side,
brought into the Scottish football pyramid season last year in the Lowland
League. Although a league apart, this season’s Lowland League winners could be
playing Queens Park for a place in Division 2.
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