Great escape for Garvey Fifths as they earn a last gasp draw at Queens

Queens started very brightly and two turnovers in defence gifted the home side two goals within the first ten minutes. Garvey were struggling to get a foothold in the game against a side that was full of pace.

Some resolute defence kept the score to 2-0 at the break with Garvey rarely having been in the Queen’s circle during the half.

Matters deteriorated just after the restart when another mistake led to the third Queens goal leaving Garvey looking at a heavy defeat for the first time this season. However, despite riding their luck on more than one occasion, Garvey pulled one back through Murray after a neat interchange with Johnny Cash at Garvey’s second penalty corner with 15 minutes to go.

Queens were still pressing very hard and Graeme Shaw was under constant pressure and made a string of fine saves to keep the score to 3-1.

Fine

With four minutes left Rodgers won a fine tackle in the midfield zone to release Murray who fired the ball hard and flat to Paul Bonar for the deftest of touches to leave the Queens keeper stranded. The score was now 3-2 and suddenly Garvey felt they could get something from the game.

The students were now clearly rattled and with Garvey throwing everything at them for the final few minutes managed to win a short corner as the final whistle sounded. Rodgers capped a fine game by calmly slotting the ball past the Queens keeper from another short corner variation to level the score at 3-3.

This was an excellent point for the Fifths as Queens clearly deserved to win the match with the number of chances they created but credit to the Fifths for never giving up even when 3-0 down.

Thanks go again to Jamie Millar for umpiring and Peter Richardson for tactical input.