IT’S been an eventful few weeks for Queen’s Park. Aside from being bombarded with tweets from a confused Canadian woman getting them mixed up with a political scandal in Ontario, the club has sold their home of almost 150 years and seen their manager of four and half years move on to take up the role of technical director at his former club St Mirren.

Gus MacPherson, pictured, took charge at Hampden in January 2014 with Queen’s bottom of the league and led the side to a second-place finish the following season. One year later they had achieved promotion to League One.

Following relegation earlier this year, after two campaigns in the third tier, many changes were made to a squad which is, in this early part of the season, still gelling and trying to find its best starting XI.

Even still, MacPherson left the club in mid-table with eight points from their opening six matches. After the highs of the dramatic win away to TNS in the Irn Bru Cup, his final game in charge was a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Stirling.

Poor away form overall means that the vast majority of their points so far are down to their excellent home form. A penalty-shootout defeat to MacPherson’s new employers aside, Queen’s had failed to lose at home this season going into Saturday’s match.

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That defeat was thus their first at Hampden this season and it came against League Two’s early pace-setters Edinburgh City. Both sides carved out excellent opportunities in the first half, with City dominating the early stages and threatening the Queen’s goal on several occasions. Graham Taylor – who would go on to bag a brace – forced a smart save out of Jordan Hart, while Scott Shepherd saw his effort rebound off the post.

The game then swung in the home side’s favour, with no-one at the front post to meet Smart Osadolor’s cutback and with Scott McLean passing up an excellent opportunity following a well-worked move.

Despite the defeat there were a few positives to take. Kurtis Roberts looked dangerous at times in the No 10 role, while Osadolor and Scot Gibson managed to get in behind the City full-backs on occasion. Unfortunately, Queen’s lacked the requisite quality in the final third to capitalise on their promising attacks.

Therein lies the main issue to be addressed by the new manager. Queen’s are the second-lowest goalscorers in the division behind Albion Rovers, who currently sit bottom and who failed to score in their first four league games.

Caretaker Mark Roberts voiced his interest in the position after the match – the club has set a closing date of October 2 for applicants – though admitted the defeat doesn’t help his position much.

Aside from this, if previous appointments in recent times are anything to go by – MacPherson, Billy Stark, Gardner Speirs – Roberts may not exactly fit the profile of manager the board is looking for.

In his defence he has built up a decent amount of coaching experience at Ayr and Clyde, as well as Queen’s Park, since the twilight of his playing days and Saturday’s defeat came against a very impressive City side that can now legitimately consider themselves among the League Two title contenders.

Sublime Spittal helps save Partick Thistle

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PARTICK Thistle maintained their 100% home record in the league with a 3-2 win over Queen of the South, thanks in large to a reinvigorated Blair Spittal. 

The winger had gone 11 games without scoring before the 3-2 defeat in Inverness the previous week and Saturday’s man-of-the-match performance – in which he scored two, including one screamer, and assisted the other – helped Thistle come from behind twice.

It’s been a stop-start beginning to the season for Alan Archibald’s men – their league form so far reads: LWLWLW – though they have the chance to rectify that next with a trip to lowly Dunfermline followed by two home matches, albeit against Ross County and Dundee United.

Thistle played some excellent passing football on Saturday, their second goal of the afternoon being the best example of the numerous times they carved Queen’s open.

Having the likes of Stuart Bannigan back, returning after a lengthy battle with injuries, as well as adding the likes of Jai Quitongo, meant that Archibald was finally able to name a full compliment of first-team substitutes.

Their defence remains an issue, with only Dunfermline and Falkirk having conceded more.

Arbroath's comeback is the sign of champions

ARBROATH found a new way to win at the weekend. With Raith Rovers continuing to stutter, the Red Lichties extended their lead at the top of League One with a 2-1 victory over Stenhousemuir. To do so they had to overcome a one-goal deficit – the first time they have been behind in a league game this season.

It was a poor first-half display from Arbroath, “lethargic” according to their manager. Harry Paton, back at Ochilview for a second spell, cut through the away side’s midfield on several occasions and slipped in Mark McGuigan for the opener.

Arbroath failed to find their feet at all in the opening period, with the home side doing a better job of adjusting to the conditions. But with a bench containing the likes of Danny Denholm and Ryan McCord, Dick Campbell has a depth to his squad that is the envy of most clubs in the division. 

Denholm was the first to be introduced and came within inches of adding a third later in the match, though it was the double substitution on 77 minutes that really made the difference.

With McCord and David Gold taking to the field for Bobby Linn and Michael McKenna, Gavin Swankie was pushed further forward and it was his control and lay-off, whether intended or not, that allowed McCord to curl the ball into the bottom corner for the winner.

That’s one defeat in 13 in all competitions this season for Arbroath. It’s a cliche, but true nonetheless, that winning when you don’t play particularly well is a sign of champions.