St Johnstone 4 Queen’s Park 3 – Fightback Foiled

QUEEN’S PARK went down to another battling defeat, 4-3 in Perth.

After trailing 3-0 at the break Sean Crighton’s Spiders rallied to cut the table-topping Saints’ lead back to 3-2 before a late header derailed the travelling support’s comeback hopes.

The head coach has imbued resilience and character in his squad this season, and that desire has been matched by the support in the stands.

Even after St Johnstone left the Spiders looking dazed at the interval following a punishing first half performance from Simo Valakari’s side the Spiders were still cheered on and got their rewards with goals from Seb Drozd, Josh Fowler and QPR loanee Rocco Friel – but his late tap-in came just too late to cap a comeback.

In the end Jack Baird’s late header gave the home side a big enough cushion to see the game out and deny the Spiders by a single goal for the second time this season.

Saints stumbled in the opener after 15 minutes, when Kai Fotheringham raced onto a Morgan Boyes through-ball and cut-back. Jamie Gullan was chasing in with Matty Shiels and a tangle of legs connected with the ball and knocked it past Cal Ferrie.

Just three minutes later the lead doubled.

Gullan got the better of Euan Murray to fire at Ferrie but the ‘keeper was down smart to save with his knees.

Sam Stanton was onto the rebound though, firing high into the net at the second attempt after a block from Ricky Waugh stopped his first strike.

By the time the clock struck the half hour Saints were three up. Gullan fired in from the penalty spot after Cal Ferrie had been booked for clattering Jonathan Svedberg in the air.

That the score wasn’t more at the interval was down to the keeper’s bravery – saving at the feet of Gullan again two minutes from the interval.

To that point Queen’s had struggled to create much in response against the rampany league leaders, with Josh Fowler coming closest charging down a kick by Toby Steward and Euan Murray offside with an acrobatic connection to meet Ricky Waugh’s long ball after a set-piece routine.

That response came after the break. And then some.

Waugh was replaced by Rocco Friel, and before long two Spiders were in ref Alistair Grieve’s book – Grant Savoury for kicking the ball away and Josh Fowler for a clip on Liam Smith.

The booking may come to rule the striker out of the trip to Morton, but it didn’t curtail his involvement, as he laid on Seb Drozd to tap in at the backpost and reduce the deficit.

Suddenly the Spiders had a spring in their step and when Jack Baird made a slack pass oput of defence, Fowler was on it in an instant. He played through Aidan Connolly and the midfielder was toppled by keeper Steward who seemed to push the ball away from under Connolly.

That was enough for Grieve to point to the spot and after lengthy remonstrations, and checks from the whistler, Fowler kept his cool to send Steward the wrong way and haul the game back into the balance.

For all the visitors had seemed out of it at the break, the resilience and character Sean Crighton has built in his side shone for the first half hour of the second period and they even had the ball in the net on the 70^th minute – though Rocco Friel’s cross was in the hands of Toby Steward as he was nudged over the line by the leaping Grant Savoury.

Steward then held a strike from Seb Drozd when the forward got the better of Baird and shot, with Fowler and Grant Savoury in support.

The travelling support cheered the Spiders on for the remainder, but the equaliser they desired wouldn’t fall and instead it was Jack Baird’s header that restored the two-goal cushion with six minutes to go, pulled back to one when Friel tapped in the rebound from Steward’s stop to Carlo Pignatiello’s low drive.