Played at Lesser Hampden.
Seems like all County games are tough ones these days - and nothing comes tougher than a match against a professional youth team on their home ground:
Queens Park started by demonstrating how to play passing football. They were composed on the ball and they occupied the pitch in a structured manner, finding space easily in this massive pitch. But, as usual, County showed real fighting spirit and were solid in defence.
Queens broke the dead-lock from a lobbed shot over the keeper's head,(clearly the scorer and at least one other player was offside here, but the ref saw it differently).
County pulled back a typical goal which started from defence: Tom to Jack to Paul - A great run and sweet left foot shot from Paul (1-1).
About 10 minutes later the big QP midfielder hit a long range effort high into the net to make things 2-1. Still, things seemed fairly even in the first period, with Jack looking dangerous on the break.
In the second period, County went a bit flat. QP took advantage and scored two fairly soft goals. At 4-1 was this game over? Well, to quote last week's sports writer, "Not on your Nelly!"
The County coaches changed things around in the last period, putting Tom back to left back and moving Anton into midfield. This worked a treat, breaking down the QP attacking moves and creating counter-attacks, with Paul and Jack linking-up extremely well as target men. Now it was County's turn to apply the pressure... Jack won the ball and held it well in the centre of the park, he found Paul on the wing: Paul left the defence in his wake and scored a cracker to bring County back into the match. 4-2
Not long after his second goal, Paul got his hat-trick, this time leaving everyone behind and rounding the keeper with great skill to make it 4-3.
Jack then scored a well-deserved equaliser with 5 minutes to go, after a strong run, shrugging off defenders he side-stepped the keeper and hit the ball sweetly home. Final score 4-4.
A very enjoyable game.
Coaches comments.
" Jack and Paul were outstanding and fully deserved their MOM awards. But, all the boys played with great team spirit and showed a high level of fitness. In the end we couldve won this match. Well done everyone."
