‘Frustrated’ Queens let two-goal lead slip
QOS 2
Shields (46, 52)
ARBROATH 2
Stewart (63), O’brien (65)
Arbroath assistant Ian Campbell praised his side’s character after coming from two goals behind to secure a point at Palmerston.
Queens’ in-form hitman Connor Shields looked to have given the Doonhamers their fourth win on bounce with a quickfire second halfbrace. But the Championship basement boys dug deep, with Scott Stewart and Thomas O’brien netting to earn a hard thought point.
Campbell said: “I thought we shot ourselves in the foot at the start of the second half, but that has been the story of the season for us.
“Thereafter, we were tremendous. We came back and showed good fighting spirit. Every time we went up the park we looked dangerous.
“There was two stonewall penalties for us, but we were a little bit unfortunate.”
It was a slow start to proceedings at a blustery Dumfries with both sides cancelling each other.
The only real talking points of the first period was whether referee Steven Reid should’ve awarded both sides first-half penalties.
The hosts were the first to claim for a spot-kick on 10 minutes when Shields looked to have been barged over in the box by Colin Hamilton, but the referee waved away protests.
Five minutes later, Dick Campbell’s men thought they should’ve had a penalty when James Craigen was brought down on the edge of the area by Gregor Buchanan. However, the man in the middle didn’t blow his whistle.
The visitors had their chances and should have broken the deadlock on the half-hour when Kris Doolan capitalised on a misjudged header back by Ayo Obileye. But the forward couldn’t get a good connection on his shot from 12 yards and it flew wide.
The game burst into life straight from the second half kick-off as the home side edged ahead after 12 seconds of play. A long ball found Aidan Fitzpatrick on the left and the winger used his pace to get into the box and crossed into the path of Shields to tap home.
Shields then made it seven goals in five matches with a tremendous individual effort on 52 minutes. He used his strength and electric pace to eliminate the defence and, from a tight angle, fired into the roof of the net.
Queens could’ve killed off the match two minutes later, but Aidan Fitzpatrick’s shot was saved by Derek Gaston.
From then, the Angus side battled hard and got their reward on 63 minutes when substitute Stewart fired a low shot past Ferguson into the bottom corner.
The Red Lichties continued to pile on the pressure and levelled on 65 minutes when captain Thomas O’brien nodded home from a Bobby Linn corner. Then Campbell’s side had another shout for a spot-kick on 80 minutes when Buchanan looked to have fouled Linn inside the box.
The hosts could have won it at the death when sub Stephen Dobbie – who returned to the side after a month lay-off with a hamstring injury – missed from an acute angle.
Home boss Allan Johnston believes it was two points dropped for his side, who have extended their unbeaten run to five matches.
He said: “We should’ve seen the game out comfortably after we went 2-0 ahead. We made it difficult for ourselves by losing a sloppy goal.
“It then got a wee bit nervy for some reason and they managed to get a goal from a corner which we’ve conceded far too many from this season.
“We showed some quality for our goals and it’s great to keep up our unbeaten run, but it’s so frustrating with the goals we lost.”