We're off to Hampden~den~en~n

It's a trip to a less than full Hampden Park for us in the next stage of the relegation battle after we dodged a bullet last week against Arbroath. Goal difference wise we are the best placed of the bottom four clubs. Our defence is also better than the other bottom four, in fact we are second equal defensively in the Championship, however what has let us down is scoring goals and in that department we are second worst in the league, only two goals better off than relegation certainties Arbroath. We did put four goals past Queens Park last time we were there. Unfortunately that was followed by three defeats and two draws in our next five games and we lost at Inverness when the Queens visited back at the beginning of February. The only certainty here is that the Hampden Park crowd record of 149,415 from 1937 won't be broken.

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Match/Ticket/Travel Info

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Only the last eight games since Queens Park came up into the Championship and QP are streets ahead of us since then. The 3 - 0 win was a League Cup encounter 14 years ago courtesy of these guys with goals from Lee Cox (20), Eric Odhiambo (55), Ross Tokely (58) Ryan Esson; Ross Tokely, Grant Munro, Stuart Golabek, Kevin McCann, Russell Duncan, Lee Cox, Nick Ross, Gil Blumenshtein, Adam Rooney, Dani Sanchez. Subs: Jonny Tuffey; Chris Innes, Roy McBain, Eric Odhiambo, Shane Sutherland

Full report on that one came from hislopsoffsideagain (click on the 3-0 scoreline above)

0 - 1 (H)

4 - 1 (A)

1 - 2 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

0 - 2 (H)

0 - 0 (H)

1 - 2 (A)

1 - 1 (H)

3 - 0 (H)

1 - 2 (H)

Hampden Success:  4 - 1  Danny Devine had recovered from the knock that saw him limp off against Raith Rovers on the hour last week. Sean Welsh and Luis Longstaff were on the bench. Grant Savoury, Charlie Fox and Craig Napier missed out for the Spiders. Jack Turner put Queens Park ahead early in the first half before Max Anderson levelled the match ten minutes later. Jack Thomson hit the bar, Mckay deemed offside when putting a loose ball into the net after Wotherspoon's header was saved and that prompted some words of comfort for the referee for which Big Dunc eventually ended up in the stands at the break. After the interval Inverness eased themselves up into sixth place in the league with goals from Nikola Ujdur, his first for the club, David Wotherspoon and a Billy Mckay penalty. (For Full report click on 4-1 scoreline above)

Last Time Out

Inverness made hard work of taking the points from all but relegated Arbroath. We dominated the first half and but for some brilliant saves from Max Boruc we could have gone in three or four goals to the good at the break. As it was Wallace Duffy scored on half time and that should have given us something to build on against a poor Arbroath who were simply going through the motions. As per usual, we failed to take full advantage of the numerous opportunities and paid the price when Leighton McIntosh hammered home a wind assisted shot from the edge of the box. We huffed and puffed somewhat thereafter before the energetic MotM Alex Samuel turned and thrashed in the winner from fifteen yards for a belter of a goal. It was a crucial strike that has all but relegated Arbroath and it keeps our hopes alive of avoiding the play-offs. Last Five: D L D L W 

Queens Park had a day to forget last weekend at Hampden as Champions in waiting Dundee United put five past them. It didn't look likely after the first half when they trailed by a single goal from Fotheringham on the stroke of half-time. However four goals in a fifteen minute spell from Moult, Graham, Fotheringham again, and Sibbald put Queen's back in trouble and United on track for the Premiership. Last Five: D D W L L 

•  FRIDAY 12TH APRIL
•        Morton v Dundee Utd
•       SATURDAY 13TH APRIL
• Airdrieonians v Dunfermline 
•   Ayr Utd v Arbroath
• Queens Park v Inverness CT
•   Raith Rovers v Partick Thistle

Latest Team News

Duncan Ferguson has much the same squad to select from as last week. Luis Longstaff came off the bench on Saturday after being out for a couple of months with a knee injury and will be back in the squad again for Saturday. Carragher, although he did play, and Ujdur had a bit of a bug last weekend.  However Carragher is now a doubt after feeling his hamstring. Other than that not much has changed apart from Remi Savage, who has not recovered after he got a boot in the face from Cammy Kerr. Apparently Kerr's boot is OK but Savage is suffering from minor concussion and will miss the next couple of games. Maybe that was Kerr ensuring he gets a game this weekend. 

Here's our underfire Gaffer looking like Sherlock Holmes with his pipe>>> 

Callum Davidson will be smarting after the drubbing they took last week. That's seven goals in their last two games with none scored. Word of warning though, they still have Ruari Paton who has sixteen goals this season. They also have our often broken ex-captain Sean Welsh and Cillian Sheridan who surprisingly has bagged a couple of goals since leaving us. He looked like an unfit Sunday League pub player when at the Caledonian Stadium. Dom Thomas, who scored the winner last time Queens came North, has scored eight, but he was missing last week. He does enjoy a goal against us. Could Davidson be keeping him under wraps for the six-pointer against us this weekend?

Latest from Queens Park: Ben McPherson, Patrick Jarrett and Grant Savoury continue to be injury absentees with Dom Thomas’ fitness being monitored closely in training this week after missing the last two games.