Queens Park coach gets marching orders, intends to appeal
“He felt it was dissent. They will decide on the length of the ban, but I will be appealing it. We have video to back up my appeal.”
Queens Park coach Paddy Murphy will appeal a red card he received during his team’s 1-0 loss to Mosgiel in the Southern Premier League game played in Invercargill on Saturday.
The referee deemed Murphy had shown dissent which prompted a red card just before half time. It meant Murphy had to watch the remainder of the game as a spectator and did not have any further involvement in coaching the team.
“Luckily I’ve got good assistants,” Murphy said.
“[The referee] felt it was dissent. They will decide on the length of the ban, but I will be appealing it.
“We have video to back up my appeal.”
Despite Murphy being removed before halftime, and the 1-0 loss, the Queens Park coach said there were plenty of positives to take from Saturday.
Queens Park - the sole Southland club in the southern league - went down 1-0 after just three minutes when Mosgiel landed an impressive goal through Taylor Donaldson.
However, from that point, Queens Park stood up against the competition leaders.
“We were knocking on the door the whole 90 minutes after that [goal], so lots of positives,” Murphy said.
“That definitely was our best performance of the season. The boys were really happy with themselves. We just fell short but played really well.”
On top of Murphy’s red card Queens Park’s chances weren’t helped by Anton Fitzgerald’s red card in the 62nd minute, which meant they played the remaining game one player down.
Queens Park now has one win-five-loss record to date in 2023, although Murphy was pleased with the improvement shown.
“I think we’ve definitely turned a corner the last couple of weeks and found a formula. I think we were searching for that earlier in the season.
“I feel like [Saturday] was how we want to play and to impose that on the league leaders is a massive positive step in the right direction. I’m a bit disappointed with some of the earlier performances but happy after [Saturday].”
The focus will this weekend turn to the Chatham Cup, although Queens Park has drawn a bye.
Murphy said it would be a timely week off as it looks to get a couple of injured players right.
Meanwhile, in Southland’s topflight club competition, Te Anau remain unbeaten at the top of the standings through a 4-0 victory over Old Boys on Saturday.
Although the fellow Old Boys team in the competition had a good day out beating Queens Park 4-0 which included Nikolai Molijn banking a hat-trick of goals.
Speaking of goal scorers, Thistle’s Lewys McLaren racked up an impressive five goals in Thistle’s 11-0 victory over Balclutha, while the other Thistle team in the competition played out an entertaining 3-3 draw with Southend United.
In other results, one Gore Wanderers picked up a 5-2 win over Waihopai, while the other lost 2-1 to Winton.