When Queen’s Park won promotion to League One in the summer of 2016, there were fears that they might struggle to compete a league up. At times, there were very real fears that this would prove to be the case, and indeed the Hampden club did finish the campaign with the poorest scoring record of any team in the league. But the moments of real toil were consigned to a brief spell in the autumn, when they fell to ninth in the standings, and thereafter they made steady progress up towards the top four, missing out on the playoffs only on the final day of the season. The secret of their success was the management of Gus MacPherson, who took what was on paper a pretty average group of players and organised them very solidly. When they were not in possession, their five-man defensive line regularly did its job, even allowing them to record two victories over league champions Livingston. But Queen’s did prove to be a rather limited side going forward, and this was why they failed to break into the top four. Dario Zanatta’s two loan spells were successful, but he was their only consistent goal threat. Otherwise, they showed only flashes of real class going forward, with David Galt one of the few genuinely creative players in their ranks – and even he was not a regular. It was telling that Ross Millen, their right wing-back, was their top scorer, having been their penalty taker. MacPherson had been forced to sacrifice attacking flair for practicality, and while it allowed his side to compete, they did not have the firepower to quite break into the top four. This was best exemplified as they drew six successive matches from the beginning of March until the start of April. Maintaining their standard next season will be a tricky affair for the SPFL’s only amateur side. It appears they have hit something of a glass ceiling unless they can find a way of attracting fresh talent to the club. Nevertheless, this is a strong unit but will have to be retained.
