For his first home game in charge, caretaker-boss, James Fowler, selected the same team that had earned a useful point at the Falkirk stadium last weekend, with the only change to the match day squad seeing, Scott Hooper replacing Aidan Smith on the bench. Visitors Hibs, included Congolese striker, Dominique Malonga, scorer of a debut goal in the win over Cowdenbeath last weekend, along with loan signings, Dylan McGeough, Matt Kennedy, and Jake Sinclair, as boss Alan Stubbs looked for continued improvement from his team.

 

Fowler in a dual role

 

  The away side made the brighter start to the game, and indeed they probably should have opened the scoring early on. Sinclair`s excellent through ball in behind the back of the Queens defence sent Kennedy clear just inside the penalty area, but as the angle narrowed, Zander Clark was able to block the midfielder`s effort. During the opening exchanges, the visitors looked comfortable when in possession, but although they had plenty of the ball, there was little threat to the home defence after that initial early chance. Having lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation it was down to Iain Russell, and Danny Carmichael on either flank to push Queens forward, and after Russell showed a good turn of pace to create some room for himself, he rather wasted his earlier good work by shooting well wide of the target on 13 minutes.

 

   There was plenty of energy from the hosts, and with Gavin Reilly looking lively up front, the home side were keen to use the pace of the striker as often as possible. Twice in quick succession he was only inches away from getting on the end of long balls from defence as Queens continued to press, but the Hibs central pairing of Forster, and Hanlon stood firm. The intricate skills of Southampton loanee, Sinclair, were starting to pose a few problems for Queens, and twice in as many minutes he was sent sprawling to the ground, firstly by Russell, and then by Fowler, with neither resulting free-kick causing the home side any trouble.

 

   Malonga`s first real involvement in the game saw him shoot straight at Clark from the edge of the area, his effort which although was on target, had no strength or direction to test the Queens shot stopper. The best chance of the opening 25 minutes for Queens came after they were awarded a free-kick on the left following a foul on Iain Russell. The delivery from the right foot of McShane found it`s way to the back post and to the unmarked Andy Dowie, but unfortunately the big defender was unable to keep the ball down and he could only lift his effort from close range a couple of feet over the bar. It was a very good chance for Queens, and although the home fans in the crowd of 3083 were disappointed that their team had not made the most of such a good opportunity, minutes later the disappointment turned to delight as Queens made the breakthrough.

 

   There seemed to be little danger for Hibs as they brought the ball forward in midfield, but a lapse of concentration by Robertson allowed McShane to take the ball from him and put Queens on the front foot. As the attack developed, the midfielder then exchanged passes with Reilly, and following the striker`s square pass along the 6-yard box, Ian McShane was on hand to slot the ball past Hibs `keeper, Oxley to claim his first goal of the season. At that point Queens were the better team and they were certainly worth their lead, and by keeping  McGeough quiet in midfield, Fowler, and McShane were enjoying a decent spell of dominance in the central areas. 

 

McShane slots home ...

 

...turns away..

 

 

and celebrates

 

 An optimistic effort from Russell on 39 minutes went well wide as the home side continued to press forward, and after skipping past full-back Gray with ease, Carmichael wasted the chance to put the Hibs defence under further pressure when he over hit his cross as both Russell and Derek Lyle waited unmarked. Five minutes before the break, Hibs were handed-literally-a really good opportunity to level the game. Kevin Holt was rather harshly penalised for hand ball, and as a result he was cautioned,but from the free-kick that followed some 25- yards from goal, astonishingly Malonga came closer to hitting the hands on the clock above the Portland Drive terracing than he was to testing Zander Clark. The last action of a very positive first half for Queens saw Derek Lyle become the second Queens player to be booked, I think more for the`totting up` process rather than for any one specific foul.

 

 

The visitors started the second period on the front foot, and a glancing header from Hanlon in the opening attack suggested that they were keen to take the game to their hosts. However, once again after showing up well in the early part of the half, they failed to build on it and this allowed Queens to play well within themselves for the opening phase of the half. It took Queens 62 minutes to win their first corner of the game, and when it came, McShane`s delivery was met by Andy Dowie`s head but the defender was penalised for pushing and the attack was ended Care-taker boss, Fowler, then became the third Queens player to be booked after his foul in the middle of the park was spotted by referee Muir, who allowed Hibs the advantage before returning to caution the Queens man. The resulting set-piece saw an acrobatic overhead kick by Hanlon drift well wide of the near post much to the frustration of the travelling Hibs support who were gathered behind the goal that their team was attacking.

 

Dowie `fouls` his opponent 

 

   With Hibs now having what was probably their best sustained spell of the game, Clark and his defence reacted quickly, and decisively to keep out an effort from McGeough, and moments later, substitute Cummings was unlucky to see his shot across Clark narrowly fail to find the target. Queens made their first change on 74 minutes as Kevin Dzierzawski, replaced Fowler, and that was followed by another change a couple of minutes later, with Lewis Kidd replacing Lyle. From the next Queens attack down the left wing, there were huge appeals from both players and crowd alike for a penalty, but although the ball did appear to hit the arm of a defender as the ball was fizzed in at the near post, it did not seem to be a deliberate attempt to stop the ball illegally. The resulting corner was well defended by Forster whose header, not for the first time in the game, cleared the danger.

 

Forster takes Russells legs

 

     It was a half of few clear cut chances, but 9 minutes from time, Queens carved out a really decent chance to wrap the game up. More indecision by the Hibs defence allowed Mark Durnan to intercept the ball, and after gaining possession his cross found the head of Iain Russell, but from close in his header flew over the bar. To be fair, the ball did seem to bounce from the ground on to Russell`s head at quite a pace,and he did very well to keep his instinctive effort on target. The Queens striker was heavily involved in the next piece of action as he was involved in an incident that on another day, might have resulted in a red card being shown, After collecting the ball on the left touchline, Russell outpaced defender Forster who made absolutely no attempt to win the ball, but instead blatantly fouled Russell. The referee waved for play to continue with Russell seemingly regaining his balance and moving forward, but as he tried to continue Forster  hauled the Queens striker to the ground at the second attempt. It was quite clearly a bookable offence, and some officials might have issued a stronger punishment. With the game nearing it`s conclusion, Danny Carmichael fired an effort into the side netting after a good run down the right wing.There was still time for Iain Russell to become the fourth Queens player to be booked in what was not really a `dirty` game, before  Queens made their third and final change when John Baird replaced Reilly in the dying embers of the game, and although the match moved into several minutes of stoppage time, during which time Queens held firm to repel one last attack that saw Hibs `keeper, Oxley, move forward, they defended it well and claimed a well deserved three points and so the 50 year wait for a league win against Hibs is now over.

Joy at the final whistle