Thistle contain champions on trophy day

Boroughmuir Thistle were unfortunate to leave New Tinto Park with just a point on Sunday afternoon as they effectively stifled Queen’s Park in the penultimate game of the season.

The runaway league champions opened the scoring midway through the first half via an Emma Craig long-range strike.

Thistle equalised shortly after, though, with Emily Arthur remaining composed to fire beyond the Spiders’ goalkeeper.

The away side controlled much of the second half but couldn’t quite find a winner, meaning they had to settle for a second 1-1 draw in as many league games with Queen’s Park at New Tinto Park.

Having wrapped up the SWPL 2 title back in mid-April, a large, expectant home crowd gathered to watch Queen’s Park get their hands on the trophy. Before that, though, Boroughmuir Thistle were intent on putting a damper on proceedings and came into this one with a clear game plan - all-out attack.

The opening exchanges were dominated by the hosts, with Beth Rennie first being called into action on eight minutes when she got down well to thwart Megan Quigley.

Emma Craig then rattled the crossbar with a thunderous free kick from a good 30-yards out just moments before giving Queen’s Park the lead. Her first-time strike from even further out flew over Rennie into the far top corner.

However, Thistle didn’t let that spook them and responded just four minutes later. Holly Aitchison did well to win the ball back in the centre circle, allowing Emily Arthur to nip it past Ciara Bonner before continuing her run into the box and dispatching a composed effort beyond ‘keeper Lauren McGregor into the bottom left corner.

The equaliser sprung Boroughmuir into life and set the tone for the rest of the game. As she has done so often over the last few games, Arthur used her pace down the right to carve out a chance from nothing but watched as her shot was saved.

Half Time: Queen’s Park 1-1 Boroughmuir Thistle

The second 45 was all Boroughmuir, with Queen’s Park seldom making it out of their own half and struggling to deal with Thistle’s physicality in the attacking areas.

Maria Novoa-Torrente forced McGregor into a smart save following Aitchison’s lay-off at the edge of the box, though the resulting corner came to nothing.

Fiona Gibson was next to have a pop as her long-range free kick flew inches over the crossbar around the time the heavens opened.

Queen’s just couldn’t get a foothold in the second half and created very little other than Abby Callaghan’s tame effort which was easily gathered by Rennie.

As the clock ticked on, Thistle kept up the pressure and could’ve walked away with all three points. Aitchison delivered an inviting free kick which evaded everyone in purple before substitute Molly Orr-Love’s quick feet allowed her to unleash a powerful strike that was somehow met by the gloves of the diving McGregor.

A point on the road against the champions is not to be sniffed at, though, and Boroughmuir can take pride in knowing they can outplay the best teams in the league going into next season. Up next is the final game of the season when Kilmarnock come calling to Meadowbank on Sunday afternoon.

Full Time: Queen’s Park 1-1 Boroughmuir Thistle

Queen’s Park: McGregor, Quigley (Callaghan 45’), Craig, O’Neill, Bonner, Cunningham, Cairney, Kane (C), Molley, Harty (McConnachie 77’), Robertson (King 46’)

Subs: Ross, Davis, Callaghan, Gallacher, Inman, King, McConnachie, Macara, Docherty

Boroughmuir Thistle: Rennie, Goodchild, Ramage (C), Gibson, McCabe, Hall (Orr-Love 90+1’), McCafferty (Murphy 63’), Aitchison, Arthur (Forsyth 83’), Novoa-Torrente, Macleod (Simmons 46’)

Subs: Smith, Forsyth, Murphy, Brown, Orr-Love, Simmons, Hinchcliffe, Sheehan

Referee: Thomas Denholm

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