QOS 7 Stenhousemuir 1: Crushing defeat in Irn-Bru Cup

The Warriors boss watched on as doubles from Stephen Dobbie and stevie Rigg plus strikes from Dale Hilson and Derek Lyle destroyed his “fragile” Ochilview outfit and sent them crashing from the Irn-Bru Challenge Cup.

The feelgood factor had been high at Stenny following an upturn in performances and fortune recently – a series of improvements which began in Dumfries on their last visit in the BetFred competition, and where the Warriors only went down 1-0 in a spirited display.

However this was nothing other than dispiriting and devastating.

From the fourth minute the Warriros were behind and within ten minutes the writing was on the wall.

First Dale Hilson scored to put Queen’s ahead and then ex-Stenhousemuir man Grant Anderson notched his side’s second with a drive that left Colin McCabe with no chance.

It had been one-way traffic, and Stenhousemuir had little to resist the home side currently flying high at the top end of the SPFL Championship.

By contrast Stenny are languishing in the lower regions of League One and the gulf was clear fro all to see, even after as little as ten minutes.

“We were well beaten, clearly. Three or four weeks ago we were very close to beating Queens,” said manager Brown Ferguson

“It was one of the most embarassing days I’ve had in football. We saw a fragile team low on confidence and QOS were the opposite.

“When the goal we scored was applauded by the opposition fans – that’s the sign of just how dominated we were.”

The home side were 4-0 up and the game over easily by half-time. Stephen Dobbie scored another on his return to the club and Derek Lyle added a penalty after the ball struck McCormack on the hand.

Things didn’t improve much for the Warriors after the break though they grabbed a consolation through Alan Cook which even raised a cheer from the home support.

By that stage they were used to cheering having added further goals from Dobbie and a Steven Rigg double, one of which was quite fortunate, for the 7-1 win.

Boss Ferguson added: “There’s so many people at the club trying to get resources.

“On the pitch is our job. The players are better than they showed here.

“We need to face up to situation we are in, be men and work hard.”