Queens made the long trek to Inverness this weekend and the players will consider themselves unfortunate not to have have come back with all three points after being well on top for most of the game, particularly in the second period. Gary Naysmith made three changes to the team beaten at St Mirren last weekend as Chris Kane, who impressed as a sub at Paisley, Callum Tapping and Andy Stirling started instead of Darren Brownlie, Derek Lyle and Lyndon Dykes. Shaun Rooney moved back to right back and Callum Fordyce moved back to the middle with Brownlie being the defender to miss out.

The match began in bright sunshine with Queens unveiling their second choice grey and yellow kit competitively for the first time. Neither goalkeeper was troubled until Shaun Rooney burst forward from the back to strike a shot from 25 yards towards the top right corner, forcing Welsh international goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams to spectacularly tip over the bar. The first half however was not full of goalmouth action though both Brad McKay for the home side and Jason kerr for Queens were narrowly off target with headers from corner kicks. The only other point of note from the opening half saw Carl Tremarco pick up a booking for a foul on Rooney.

Dobbie shows off the second choice strip

Rooney tests the keeper

Raven gets away with a blatant push on Stirling late on in the first half

The second half began with another Inverness booking as David Raven was perhaps slightly lucky to only see yellow for a dangerous challenge right through the back of Jordan Marshall. Fortunately the Geordie full back was relatively unharmed by the challenge. Just after the hour mark Stephen Dobbie found himself with space on the right side of the box but dragged his shot wide across the face of goal. Soon aferwards he actually managed to clear the stand behind the goal with a mis-hit free kick from 25 yards! 

Derek Lyle came on to replace Andy Stirling in the 68th minute and the change saw Queens switch to a 4-3-3 line up with Dobbie left and Kane right of Lyle in the middle. The change immediately saw Queens take a firmer grip on the game and they should have taken the lead five minutes later when Callum Tapping was slipped through on goal only for Fon Williams to rush from his line to block at the midfielder`s feet. The chance was not completely gone as Tapping bounced up onto the loose ball but he couldn`t find a colleague with the cut back. With 15 minutes to go Tapping was in the wars when the home side picked up their third booking of the day, Charlie Telford joining his full backs for a late challenge on `Tappy`.

Tapping is denied by a good save

Inverness survived a couple of penalty appeals in the second period as first Dobbie went down in the box after dribbling past about 4 opponents and then Rooney`s header across the face of goal was blocked on the line by a defender but ruled to have hit his face rather than an arm. Dobbie also had a carbon copy of his earlier effort across the face of goal from the right hand side of the penalty area. Just too wide to be a goal but not dragged back far enough for the incoming Derek Lyle at the back post to get a touch. As the clock ticked into injury time Callum Tapping went down just inside the penalty area but failed to convince referee Euan Anderson that anything had caused his fall and was duly booked for simulation.

No interest from the refereee today

The home side offered very little in the second half and Alan Martin did not have a shot on target to deal with. In contrast Queens registered 13 shots, albeit only 3 on target (stats from the BBC). This was a throughly deserved point and a slightly frustrating failure to win. Next week brings a break from League business as we again hit the road with a trip to Montrose in the Irn Bru Cup last sixteen. We`ll be without Jason Kerr who strode through the game yesterday. He joins up with Scotland u21`s today for their trips to England and Slovakia and we wish him the best of luck.