Queen’s Park’s reward for qualifying for the knock-out stages of The Premier Sports Cup is a trip north to face Aberdeen in what will be the Spiders’ first game at Pittodrie in 52 years.
The teams have not met on league duty since 1958 or on Scottish Cup business since 1964 however there have been four clashes in the League Cup starting with two Group games in 1972 and knock-out ties in 1990, 1996 and 2006.
Aberdeen prevailed in the Group clashes and in the first two ties at Hampden however Queen’s won the last meeting with a 5-3 penalty kick success after a goalless draw.
Queen’s Park Media Team met with Callum Davidson and Louis Longridge to preview it.
Callum covered:
· Is it good to have break from Championship
· Improvements being seen but tough test ahead
· Impact if Miovski is offski
· Pittodrie Frustrations
· A couple of absences on top of a couple of absences
Our Head Coach Interview is sponsored by Impact Glasgow – https://impactglasgow.co.uk/
Louis covered:
· Learning lessons from the match at Easter Road
· Relishing the opportunity to test ourselves against Premiership opposition
· The need to be at our best
Our Player Interview is sponsored by JJK Automotive Assessors – http://jjkassessors.com/
The season so far
Queen’s Park picked up their first William Hill Championship point of the season last Friday night when they drew 1-1 with visitors Livingston. The game was actually the first draw after 90 minutes in this campaign following wins over Peterhead, Elgin and Kelty Hearts in the Premier Sports Cup and defeat from Hibernian in the same competition and Falkirk in the League.
Aberdeen have been more consistent in terms of results as new manager Jimmy Thelin’s record is played six and won six. The Dons’ Premier Sports Cup campaign opened up with away successes at Queen of the South and East Kilbride followed by a comeback win against Airdrieonians at home and a success over Dumbarton also at Pittodrie.
Thelin’s side started their Premiership season off with a 2-1 win at St Johnstone and then made it six points from six with a 3-1 success over St Mirren last weekend.
Queen’s Park goalscorers
Roddy MacGregor 5
Jack Turner 4
Dom Thomas 3
Zak Rudden 2
Liam McLeish 1
Zach Mauchin 1
Sean Welsh 1
Joshua Scott 1
Clean Sheets
3
Last Time out
22 August 2006 Scottish League Cup
Queen’s Park 0 Aberdeen 0 (after extra time) Queen’s Park win 5-3 on penalties.
Ask any Queen’s Park fan born before the New Millenium what The Rolling Stones and Firhill mean to them, and they are likely to reply with ‘a win over Aberdeen.’
That was the case back in 2006 when Billy Stark’s side defeated the Pittodrie side at Partick Thistle’s ground 5-3 on penalties after a goalless draw with the game moved west due to Mick Jagger and Co playing a gig at The National Stadium.
With the clubs meeting for the first time since the Queen’s Park media team talked to one of the players who played the 120 minutes that night and he gave a different version to how the win felt to any other that Spiders fans may have heard.
Our thanks go Queen’s Park First Team Coach Barry Nicholson who talked through what happened in that game as well as highlights from his career with Aberdeen.
Queen’s Park – Mark Cairns, Mick Dunlop, Damiano Agostini, Richard Sinclair (Jonny Whelan 92), Steven Canning, Paul Paton, Stuart Kettlewell, Mark Ferry, David Weatherston (Rob Bowers 70), Richard Dunn, Paul Ronald (Alan Trouten 57).
Unused substitutes – David Crawford, Tony Quinn.
Aberdeen – Derek Soutar, Russell Anderson, Andrew Considine, Dan Smith (Chris Maguire 79), Stevie Crawford, Richard Foster, Barry Nicholson, Gary Dempsey (Kyle MacAulay 45), Chris Clark, Jamie Winter (John Stewart 45) Darren Mackie.
Unused substitutes – Jamie Langfield (G/k), David Donald.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_cups/5271286.stm
Last Time at Pittodrie
Queen’s Park’s last outing at Pittodrie was back on Saturday, August 19, 1972, in a League Cup Group game.
Former Spider Bobby Clark was in goal for the home team and whilst he was beaten by Ally Scott, Aberdeen racked up a 5-1 win with Willie Young (later to find infamy for a tackle on a teenager in a FA Cup Final) scoring twice, Joe Harper also netting a double and Drew Jarvie also being on target.
Harper, unfortunately, was not finished against Queen’s Park as he notched a hat-trick as Aberdeen won 3-0 when they travelled to Glasgow for the second meeting between the clubs in a Group contest.
Ironically Queen’s recent trip to Easter Road was their first since the summer of 1972, when Hibs were also in the same group as The Spiders and The Dons, with the Easter Road side going on to win the competition.
