The youngsters of Celtic proved to be too hot for a ring rusty Queens side to handle this afternoon at Palmerston Park. However the purpose of the match was to blow away some cobwebs and in what was a well contested game both sets of players will have benefitted from the competition. A reasonable crowd of 1329 made the trip to a sunny Palmerston and among that number were 202 supporters of the Glasgow club.
It was an early setback for Queens however as the ball found its way to the back post to where Paul McGowan was waiting to slide it into the back of the net beating Craig Reid in the process. Then only a few minutes later a soft looking penalty was awarded to Celtic as McGowan went over in the box following a Bob Harris challenge. The ball was cooly dispatched and Queens were two down.
McGowan beats Reid and Hutton to open the scoring - Photo from Sandy Robertson
Reid and McAusland keep an eye on livewire McGowan - Photo Fraser Johnstone
On the quarter hour a combination of one-two's between Holmes and McLaren finished with the later curling an effort just over the bar but this was only a brief respite as it was soon Celtic back on the attack as the impressive Paul McGowan proved to be quicker in thought and feet than his opponents.
The third goal wasn't long in coming as a speculative effort was deflected off Marc McAusland to give David Hutton no chance on thirty five minutes.
As the teams came out for the start of the second half it was clear that Gordon Chisholm wanted to give as many players a bit of match practice as possible. His side had six changes to the one that had played the first half.
Hamill strides out of defence
The second half saw the goals for the Celts dry up and Queens come more into the game. However it was Celtic who increased their lead with a goal from substitute Greig Spence as he slid the ball under former Celtic 'keeper Scott Fox. With five minutes to go youngster Dan Orsi came on for Anthony McParland on the left hand side. The Dumfries lad has been selected for the Scotland Schoolboy side and this was his debut for the full team.
Fox gets down to foil McGowan
The final action of the game saw the speed of David Weatherson beating the Celtic back line and allowing the front man to slide the ball under the giant Dominic Cervi in the Celtic goal.
Weatherson slides it past Cervi
So the scores were, 0-3 for the first half side and 1-1 for the second half side.
Celtic
Cervi, McGinn, Kurakins, Vallers, Tolmie, Lafferty, Forrest, Towell, Keatings, McGowan, Slane. Substitutes, Grant, Fairley, Spence, Gallagher