Dundee United 4 Queens Park 2 – Match report

Queen’s Park had a challenging start to the SWPL2 season with a 4-2 defeat against Dundee United at Foundation Park.

Iain Robinson made three changes to the side that lost against Montrose in the previous outing, with Summer Thomson, Jemma Mcquillan, and Morgan Hay all named in the starting 11.

Queen’s came close to getting off to the perfect start within a minute as Ellie Kane hit a low driven strike from outside the box, but her shot rattled off the post.

Ellie Macdonald also had an early opportunity, but an excellent diving stop from Annalisa McCann kept the score level.

In the 16th minute, the hosts got the breakthrough. Natalie Angelini got down well to stop the initial strike from Danni Findlay, but the ball wasn’t cleared, and Callie Bowman finished from close range.

In the 38th minute, the Tangerines won a penalty. A bouncing ball flicked up onto the hand of a Queen’s defender, and the referee pointed to the spot. Danni Findlay stepped up, and although Angelini guessed right, the strike was too far into the corner.

Half-time: Dundee United 2 Queen’s Park 0

The Spiders may have been down, but they were by no means out of this battle. In the 48th minute, a poor clearance by the United defence found Murron Cunningham, who set herself with her first touch and with her second unleashed a rocket into the top corner from miles out.

Seven minutes later, Dundee United regained their two-goal lead. Louise Mason let fly from range, and although Angelini did well to get a hand on it, it wasn’t enough to keep the ball out of the net.

Nicola Jameison added United’s fourth in the 67th minute. Jameison did well to win the ball back in the Queen’s half, and her low, powerful strike found the bottom corner.

Three minutes later, Queen’s responded. Abby Callaghan passed the ball to Emma Craig on the edge of the box, who released a rocket of a strike past the keeper and into the corner.

Full of confidence after her free-kick goal the previous weekend, Ellie Kane stepped up to take a free-kick late on, but her curling effort flew just over the crossbar.

Full-time: Dundee United 4 Queens Park 2

Speaking after the game, Iain Robinson said: “I thought in spells we were excellent, particularly before their first goal, which for us came against the run of play.

“I don’t think we reacted well enough after their goals and stopped doing the things that had been working.

“Moments decide games like this, and for us, not enough went in our favour for us to get a result.”

Next up for Queen’s is a home match against Livingston in matchday 2 of the SWPL2.