A second half brace by Jamie Bradley gave the young Spiders all three points in CAS Elite League game against Rangers last night at a wet and windy Rangers Training Ground
Rangers kicked off with a strong wind in their favour and used that advantage to fire diagonal balls beyond the Queen’s defensive line.
Queen’s reacted with Nathan Lees and Matthew-Murray-Smith using the width of the park to stretch the opposition.
In the fifth minute Queen’s took the lead. Leo Fisher played the ball forwards towards Connor Falls, Connor nipped in before the Rangers defence could react and fired the ball home from 16 yards out.
Connor Falls shot crosses the line - 1-0 to Queen's
Rory Campbell, in goal for the Spiders, had to be on his toes twice in succession. Firstly, after a defensive clearance was intercepted and secondly from a low shot from Rangers’ Alfie Hutchison.
A spell of pressure from Rangers paid dividends in the 13th minute when Rangers forward, Alfie Hutchison, intercepted a hurried clearance and hit a low shot past Rory Campbell into the net.
Both sides attempted to gain dominance, Rangers using the ball over the defence for their speedy forwards to step onto but struggled to cope with the strong wind behind them. Queen’s midfielders Daniel Matheson, Sam MacLachlan and Jamie Bradley moved the ball well through the middle of the pitch but couldn’t find any gaps in the well organised opposition defence.
Two minutes from the interval another period of Rangers pressure resulted in the second goal for the Ibrox side. A corner from the right was played into the edge of the Spiders box and it was Rangers 9 Joshua Gentles who outjumped the Queen’s defence to head the ball home.
Joshua Gentles heads Rangers into the lead just before half-time
Half-time: Rangers 2 Queen’s Park 1
Queen’s now with the wind behind them pushed up from the start of the half. In the 50th minute Connor Falls had a claim for a penalty when he dribbled past three defenders before being upended inside the box.
However, in the 57th minute Queen’s were awarded a penalty when a forward was brought down at the edge of the box. Jamie Bradley stepped up and converted the spot kick.
Jamie Bradley's spot kick crosses the line to level the score
It was really an awful night for football, with strong winds and driving rain, but credit to both sides for playing some really good passing football.
In the 60th minute, after some excellent build up play, Jamie Bradley had a shot from the edge of the box which was superbly dealt with by the Rangers keeper.
Five minutes later the young Spiders took the lead. A ball was played through for Connor Falls to run onto. The Rangers keeper reached the ball first and cleared it towards the half way line. Jamie Bradley looked up and saw the keeper 20 yards out of goal and hit a screamer from 40 yards out into the net evading the attempts of the retreating Rangers defenders.
Rangers pushed for an equaliser and could have got one but for an injury time interception by Jaden Riddell.
Full-time: Rangers 2 Queen’s Park 3
Queen’s Park: Rory Campbell, Leo Clark, Leo Fisher, Trialist, Cole Burke, Daniel Mathieson, Nathan Lees, Sam McLachlan, Connor Falls, Jamie Bradley, Matthew Murray-Smith
Subs: Sam Gibson, Trialist, Kyle Murray, Jaden Riddell, Jamie Shields, Alfie Lumsden, Finn Morrow.