SPIDERS FINALLY END THEIR BAD RUN
Fotheringham slams home early winner
Queens Park ended a run of five games without a win after a battling 1-0 victory over East Fife.
Gregor Fotheringham bagged his first goal for the club to sink the Fifers who had fallen out with the player three years ago.
The 22-year-old made just one appearance for the Bayview side under Willie Aitchison before they parted company.
Fotheringham explained: “I was at East Fife and got offered a chance to go full-time.
“But I had a fallout with the manager and it didn’t really work out.
“So it was definitely a bit special to get my first senior goal against them. As soon as I hit it I could see it was going over the keeper, so I started wheeling away.
“We fell out about my contract. I was at university and then decided not to sign for them.”
A minute’s applause was held before kickoff for Queen’s supporter Ivy Riddell who had followed the club for 70 years but passed away last week.
Gus Macpherson kept the same defence but made changes further forward from the side which lost out at East End Park. Young Canadian striker Dario Zanatta returned, having missed out at Dunfermline after being cup-tied for Hearts U20s earlier in the Irn Bru Cup, and Liam Brown and Aiden Malone came off the bench to start in place of Anton Brady and John Carter.
Josh Watt made a welcome return to the bench after several weeks on the treatment table.
There was no Hampden return for injured striker Chris Duggan, who played his part in the Spiders’ promotion push last season on loan from Partick, and has since signed for East Fife.
The hosts took the lead in 15 minutes when the ball broke to Fotheringham at the edge of the box and his effort took a wicked deflection off Fifers player-boss Gary Naysmith on its way into the net.
Dario Zanatta almost doubled their lead 10 minutes later when a bit of trickery at the edge of the box allowed him to cut inside and curl a strike towards the far corner, forcing Fife keeper Mark Hurst into a good stop.
In 38 minutes Aiden Malone should have made it 2-0 but Paul Woods got in the way of his team-mate’s strike and diverted the goalbound shot over the top.
Malone passed up a glorious chance to seal the points in 72 minutes when he fluffed his lines from six yards after an inch-perfect cross from Ross Millen.
And it almost came back to haunt them moments later when Jonathan Page glanced a header narrowly wide from Naysmith’s free-kick.
Gus MacPherson, whose side are now four points clear of bottom side Stenhousemuir, praised his team’s effort.
He said: “This is what this league is all about. It’s so competitive and tight, but there’s no doubt we should have been more comfortable.
“We’ve actually played a lot better and lost, but I’m delighted with the result. We defended well and restricted them to very few chances. But if we had scored a second it would have made it easier for us.”