May 5, 2023
Scotland’s second tier headed for a dramatic final day, with 9 of its 10 sides not certain of which division they would be playing in next season, the one exception being Raith Rovers who knew they would be in the Championship.
Tonight’s encounter was effectively a “winner-takes-all” decider with a win securing automatic promotion for Queen’s Park, whilst a draw would be sufficient for Dundee. Both sides squandered opportunities to strengthen their promotion claims last week, with Dundee labouring to a 0-0 home draw with bottom-placed side Cove Rangers, whilst Queen’s slid to a 1-2 defeat at Morton after taking the lead. Dundee were stuttering to the finishing line, with 4 draws in their last 5 matches. Queen’s Park were going for their third promotion in a row.
Queen’s Park were one of the famous amateur sides in Scottish football, having twice being runners-up in the English FA Cup in the 1880’s and playing at Hampden Park. However, they sold Hampden to the Scottish FA in 2020 with plans to develop Lesser Hampden into their own stadium. Whilst building works continued, Queen’s were playing this season on the artificial surface at Stenhousemuir’s Ochilview stadium, where their average attendance this season was 1,001.
Dundee named an unchanged starting XI from last week, whilst Queen’s Park made two changes, bringing in McPake and Thomas. Queen’s centre-back Charlie Fox must hold some kind of unusual record in having played for both Queen’s Park and Queen’s Park Rangers. Midfielder Malachi Boateng is on loan from Crystal Palace, right-back Marcel Oakley is on loan from Birmingham City and striker Connor Shields is on loan from Motherwell. 15 goal top scorer Simon Murray is now with Premiership side Ross County, leaving Grant Savoury the leading scorer still with the club on 10 goals. Ex-Bolton, Airdrie, Motherwell and lower Scottish league legend Owen Coyle is the manager of Queen’s Park, having scored 249 goals in 669 first class appearances.
Queen’s Park, nickname The Spiders, wore their iconic black and white hooped shirts, with white shorts and socks, whilst Dundee were in their traditional dark blue shirts and white shorts.
Bet365 made Dundee 11/10 favourites, with Queen’s Park at 2/1 and the draw at 11/4. Like Dundee’s match last week against Cove Rangers, the match was being shown live on BBC Scotland.
In the three meetings between the two sides this season, Dundee had been comfortable 3-0 winners in both matches played at Dens Park, whilst the one encounter at Ochilview had finished 2-2.
Dundee made a strong start to the game and after less than two minutes Jakubiak’s lay-off gave McGowan a good opportunity but the finish was poor and well over. However, the visitors took the lead in the 4th minute after Cameron took advantage of Boateng’s slip inside his own area and calmly squared the ball for Jakubiak to sweep home from 8 yards.
With Queen’s still rocking, Cameron had another opportunity for the Dark Blues a minute later, but his shot from just outside the area lacked power was easily saved.
The Spiders soon established a foothold into the match and an in-swinging free-kick from Thomas needed to be pushed over the bar by Legzdins. The corner was partially cleared but only as far as Fox who met the bouncing ball with a sensational 30 yard effort in the top corner for a contender for goal of the season to level the scores after 9 minutes.
Three minutes later the home side dramatically took the lead. Dundee failed to clear another corner, and although Savoury’s shot was blocked, the ball spun high into the high for Shields to acrobatically volley into the roof of the net from less than 6 yards.
With both sets of supporters barely able to get their breath back, Dundee had brought the score to 2-2 after just only 16 minutes played. Marshall delivered a fine cross from the left-wing to beyond the back post for Sweeney to head across the 6 yard box where fellow centre-back Ashcroft was unmarked to acrobatically volley home the equaliser. To the naked eye Ashcroft looked just off-side, but there is no VAR in the Scottish Championship, and the Dundee fans didn’t care as the goal was awarded.
The frantic nature of the game continued as Cameron’s turn and pass on the left near the by-line reached Jakubiak, but the Dundee striker was crowded out and after a bit of a stramash the ball somehow ended up in the hands of Queen’s keeper Ferrie. Then, after another desperate block on the Queen’s 6 yard line, Maguire’s mishit shot from 12 yards bounced up and hit the bar before rebounding to safety to prevent Dundee retaking the lead.
The dramatic nature of the opening 20 minutes was already taking its toll on the Dundee fans following the game on their Dark Blues Forum, with one poster remarking that this “must be the slowest clock in history” as the required point was still 70 minutes away !
At this point the TV coverage showed two guys on ladders watching the game over a wall, with the comment it might have been easier to have stayed at home and watch the game on TV…..
Dundee continued to look the side most likely to score the next goal but when Robinson looked to be clear, the linesman’s flag was raised for off-side. Eventually, the 5th goal of the game arrived in the 35th minute, and although Robinson claimed the credit for Dundee’s third goal, it would be unlikely to make it on to any career highlights video of his. Jakubiak’s attempted pass struck McPake square in the face and fell at the feet of Robinson. Oakley and Fox both slid in to block Robinson’s attempt on goal, but the ball ricocheted off both of them and back onto Robinson’s body and then trickled over the line to make it 2-3.
The first half drama was not over yet though, and with added on time being played, a corner from Thomas was met by Fox getting ahead of Sweeney to send a bullet header from 6 yards bulging into the net to send both sides into the dressing rooms with score at a crazy 3-3.
The end to end tempo to the game continued in the second half. Shields’ snapshot from 12 yards following a cross from Thomas was denied by a superb diving save by Legzdins and at the other end Sweeney’s header beyond the far post needed to be hacked clear by Fox a couple of yards from his own goal-line.
Another goal was coming, and it was Dundee who regained the lead in the 54th minute. A great run from man-of-the-match Luke McCowan to him to the edge of the Queen’s 18 yard line. Jakubiak attempted to back-heel the pass to him, but missed the ball, which rolled on to Cameron to steer into the corner of the net from 10 yards.
Queen’s immediately attempted to fight back. Savoury’s free-kick curled over the wall, but Legzdins was again equal to the effort to push around for a corner, and then Ashcroft was perhaps fortunate to get away with a shirt pull from the corner.
After such a hectic and remarkable first hour, the game entered a comparative lull and neither side created anything of substance for 15 minutes. With just over a quarter of an hour remaining, Dundee substitute Thomas was too strong for Robson and burst clear, but his left-footed shot was fantastically saved one-handed by keeper Ferrie, and when the loose ball fell to McCowan the follow-up was saved by the keeper’s legs at the expense of a corner.
McCowan was looking increasingly influential as the Queen’s defenders tired, first skipping past Robson to send a left-footed shot a couple of feet wide but with 10 minutes remaining latched onto a long pass from Cameron to cut pass Fox to deliver a curling left-footed effort from the edge of the area in to bottom corner to take the score to 3-5 and secure automatic promotion for Dundee.
The final minutes were uneventful as Queen’s never looked like scoring one, never mind the three goals need to achieve promotion.
At the final whistle at the end of a memorable match, the Dundee fans streamed on to the pitch to celebrate their return to the Scottish Premiership. In the meantime, as Ayr won at Inverness Caledonian Thistle but Partick Thistle failed to beat Raith Rovers, Queen’s Park finished in third place and now face Partick Thistle with the winners then meeting Ayr United for the right to play-off against the side finishing 9th in the Scottish Premiership.
At the bottom, Cove Rangers home 1-2 loss in thick fog to 10 man Morton meant they were automatically relegated on goal difference, whilst the 0-0 draw between fellow strugglers Hamilton and Arbroath meant that it is Hamilton that enter the relegation play-offs.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcDF4LcpPbM
Queen’s Park : Ferrie – Oakley, Kilday, Fox, Robson – McPake ( Jarrett ), Thomas ( Healy ), Boateng, Thomson ( Davidson ) – Savoury, Shields
Dundee FC : Legzdins – Mulligan, Ashcroft, Sweeney, Marshall ( Kerr ) – McCowan, Maguire, Cameron, Hannant ( Williamson ) – Jakubiak ( Byrne ), Robinson ( Thomas )
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