Mini Hampden Humbling

Queen's Park v Ayr United
Friendly
Monday 17th August, kick-off 7.15pm
Lesser Hampden, Glasgow

Had only heard about the match at the last minute but still opted for the short drive down the road to take it in, I didn't even know who was playing, just that Queen's were playing at Lesser Hampden. I normally prefer to park in the Hampden car park but due to the U2 concert the following evening their was no chance of that happening. God knows what state the Hampden turf will be in come Saturday's top of the table league game against Albion Rovers after Bono and his muckers are done with it.

Even when walking round to the stand it wasn't obvious who the opposition were, kitted out in blue shorts and red tops. Eventually it was clear it was Ayr United, I recognised a few senior players such as Neil McGowan, Kenny Connolly and Alistair Woodburn along with some youngsters I remembered from the EK Tournament. They also had Stephen Grindlay in goals, although he was kitted out in the sky blue Queen's kit. The Spiders side mainly consisted of players that weren't involved in Saturday's game at Elgin, Ryan Holms the only one to start both games. Queen's also gave a start to veteran player/coach Paul Ronald who seems to now have ginger hair and a Robbie Savage look-a-like trialist on the left side of midfield.

Queen's left back Paul Burns suffered an early injury and was replaced by youngster Gavin Lachlan which lead to a defensive reshuffle with Paul McGinn moving to the left and Lachlan to the right of a back four. The Honest Men appeared to have a more experienced line-up and it was showing as they dominated the first half, they took the lead after about half an hour with a close range header, then doubled their lead bang on half-time with a simple placed finish.

Ayr continued their dominance in the second period and added a further three goals, one an unlucky own goal by Spiders 'keeper Zander Cowie when the ball struck the post, then hit off him then into the net. The best Queen's could muster up was close range efforts by Paul McGinn and David Green, but both were dealt with comfortably by Grindlay between the sticks. Obviously it was just a run out for both sides but not the most enjoyable game after I'd only just witnessed my team winning for the first time in months prior to this match.

Result: Queen's Park 0-5 Ayr United

Line-ups
Queen's Park: Cowie, McGinn, Burns (Lachlan), Reilly, Brough, Green, Trialist, Dunlop, Ronald (Hamilton), Murray, Holms (Nadeem).
Ayr United: unknown

Goalscorer(s)
Queen's Park: none
Ayr United: unknown

Attendance: unknown