Falkirk 2 Queen’s Park 1

The Spiders lined-up with Nikolay Ujdur in their defence for the first time since his transfer from Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Zach Mauchin moved to the substitutes’ bench where he was joined by Aidan McGinlay who was involved in the senior side for the first time.

After Falkirk had raised their League 1 winners’ flag for last season Thomas kicked off at the second attempt with the visitors awarded an early foul after Sean Welsh had been tripped.

Falkirk won possession from the dead ball and with just 60 seconds gone Dylan Tait had a glimpse of goal from 18 yards out with Callum Ferrie glad to see the midfielder’s shot flash past.

With five minutes gone Jack Thomson put in a good old fashioned sliding tackle to win the ball and halt Calvin Miller’s progress as Falkirk looked to put on a lightning raid down their left.

On 10 minutes a three pass move from the hosts set up Callumn Morrison to fire at Ferrie’s goal with the Bairn’s shot deflected past the far post.

Queen’s first chance came two minutes later when a free-kick was worked along the ground to Thomas who cut the ball onto his left foot before hitting a 20 yard-drive that skidded off the surface and forced Nicky Hogarth into a fine diving save.

Thomson needed treatment after being hurt in a collision with Ferrie who had raced 25 yards from his goal to clear with Mr Versatile thankfully able to continue.

Cammy Kerr showed his experience on 16 minutes as he popped up on the line to clear after Miller had fired a right-wing cross past Ferrie.

The visitors recovered from that fright and Roddy MacGregor won their first corner however Thomson’s delivery did not trouble the home defence.

Midway through the half MacGregor nudged the ball into the path of Zak Rudden who charged forward before trying his luck from 25 yards with Hogarth getting down low to save.

The deadlock was broken on 33 minutes when Ross MacIver got the better of Ujdur as they chased a long ball and ran clear on Ferrie’s goal. The Queen’s shot-stopper pushed away MacIver’s 16 yard shot however the ball ran into the path of Miller who slid it into goal off the unfortunate Ujdur.

Four minutes later The Spiders came close to a leveller when Thomas fed Rudden at the edge of the Falkirk box with the striker turning and sending a shot inches over.

Rudden was off target for a second time shortly afterwards after he accepted a pass from Thomas in his stride before flicking the ball onto his left and sending a curling effort past.

MacGregor was tripped 20 yards out as the first half entered injury time and Thomas stepped up to fire at Hogarth’s goal with his shot clearing the bar.

Half time – Falkirk 1 Queen’s Park 0

Seventeen seconds into the second half Queen’s were level with a sensational strike from THOMAS.

Falkirk kicked off however Rudden won possession and slipped a pass to Dom on the right wing and the club captain took the ball to the edge of the box and then curled a fantastic shot high into the far corner.

Unfortunately, parity was only in place until the 48-minute mark with Falkirk retaking the lead when Sean Mackie stabbed a left foot shot home following a scramble.

Ten minutes into the restart clever play from Josh Scott allowed Thomas to slide Rudden free on the left with Hogarth moving out of his goals to take his cross off the head of Jack Turner.

Falkirk had the next chance and Ferrie had to produce a leaping save to push away MacIver’s thumping high drive from 25 yards.
Scott was fouled on the hour mark and MacGregor’s swirling free-kick was knocked behind for a corner however the ball was scooped up by Hogarth after Scott had recycled Thomas’ cross.

More fine play from Scott on the left gave Rudden the chance to deftly find Turner with his cut-back just missing Thomas and Louis Longridge unable to send his shot on target.

Rudden, who had just been booked, popped up in his own box to head clear at the expense of a corner on 72 minutes with the red shirted defence standing firm when the flag kick came in.

Birthday boy Liam McLeish was introduced with 13 minutes left along with Josh Hinds who made an instant impression with a scampering run that saw Tait booked for a despairing lunge on the wide-player.

On 80 minutes Kerr again popped up to clear from the line after Morrison had ended a lightning break with a low drive.

With two minutes to play Thomas hit the Falkirk touchline and cut the ball back however there were no takers.

Queen’s pushed again and substitute Zach Mauchin charged into the box and sent in a powerful shot that brought out a fine one-handed stop from Hogarth.

Queen’s Park – Calum Ferrie, Jack Thomson, Nikolay Ujdur, Cammy Kerr, Louis Longridge (Zach Mauchin 72), Sean Welsh, Jack Turner (Liam McLeish 77), Roddy MacGregor, Josh Scott (Josh Hinds 77), Dom Thomas, Zak Rudden.
Unused substitutes – Jack Wills (G/k), Rocco Hickey-Fugaccia, Tyrece McDonnell, Magnus Mackenzie, Darryl Carrick, Aiden McGinlay.

Falkirk – Nicky Hogarth, Liam Henderson, Coll Donaldson (Finn Yeats 87), Callumn Morrison (Alfredo Agyeman 83), Brad Spencer, Ross MacIver, Gary Oliver (Michael McKenna 70), Keelan Adams, Dylan Tait, Sean Mackie, Calvin Miller (Ethan Ross 70)
Unused substitutes – Owen Hayward (G/k), Leon McCann, Ryan Shanley, Rhys Walker, Caelan McCrone.

Referee – Iain Sneddon.