Future will be bright for the pro Spiders
Scottish football’s shutdown is hitting all of the country’s 42 senior clubs.
However, for one in particular, the timing of the measure, aimed at halting the spread of the coronavirus, has been extraordinary.
Queen’s Park ended their 152- year status as an amateur club in January when they offered their entire first-team squad a wage.
They were the last Scottish senior side to turn pro, prior to the move, players had only been paid travelling expenses. The changes made an immediate impact.
Under the charge of new manager Ray Mckinnon, the Glasgow team have picked up 14 of the last 21 points available to them in League Two to move to within a point of the play-off places.
“It is unbelievable,” said Tony Quinn, who played for the Spiders from 2001 to 2016 and skippered Liverpool star Andy Robertson in his first senior appearance. “We went through a century-and-ahalf as amateurs and then just months after turning professional, this happens,” said Quinn.
“I think everyone absolutely accepts it was the right thing to do, health is far more important than sport.
“Football has to pull together now and hopefully when this is all over we can get back to enjoying the game we all love.” Quinn, who manages Queen’s reserve team on a part- time basis, is bullish about the prospects for his club when things get back to normal.
“Obviously we are going to have to balance the books, the same as all the clubs will have to do, and that is not my area,” he said.
“But I think there have been great signs in the time Ray and Lawrie Ellis (Mckinnon’s No. 2) have been with us.
“We were looking good for a play-off place and there was a lot of excitement about the direction we were going.” The postponement of the Euro 2020 games at Hampden has prompted a rethink over the development of Lesser Hampden.
Queen’s were playing their last season at the national stadium, which the SFA have agreed to buy for £5 million.
They were due to flit to their training ground at the adjacent Lesser Hampden, which was to be done up following the Euro ties.
Because of the work, they had been given dispensation to play the first half of the 2020- 21 campaign at the main ground. Those plans will now have to be redrawn.