Queen’s Park’s campaign ended in relegation, with the Hampden side falling to a relegation playoff defeat over two legs against Stenhousemuir. They had flirted with relegation throughout the season, and while Forfar were able to step up their level at crucial times, that was not the case with Gus MacPherson’s side.
Last term, they had struggled to score goals and they failed to resolve that issue over the summer to their cost. Throughout the campaign, they were short in terms of the scoring stakes, and while the addition of Aidan Keena on loan from Hearts resolved that to an extent, it was telling that their leading scorer at the end of the campaign was centre-back Adam Cummins.
Indeed, Queen’s had significant problems throughout their side as they were unable to replace the players who had previously left with those of similar quality. Defensive strength was the underlying reason they were able to survive last term, but that largely faded this time around, with a raft of different combinations tried at the back.
Incredibly, they finished the campaign with only two wins at home all season in the league, one of which came against an Arbroath side with nothing to play for on the final day of the regular season.
QP did not enjoy a single sustained good spell of form all season, with their wins coming in isolated instances, typically around long stretches of defeats. Only a very poor Albion Rovers side kept them off the foot of the table.
If anything, their squad was too big. It led to MacPherson chopping and changing his panel on a weekly basis, and even going into the playoffs it was not clear that there was a cohesive strategy to cope with the problems ahead.
Their challenge over the course of the summer will be retaining those players who ultimately positively contributed to their side, such as Cummins, midfielder Anton Brady and attacker Luke Donnelly, who came good at the end of the season. If they can do that, they can challenge to go straight back up, but a total rebuild will be complicated, as they found to their cost last term.
