Queen's Park dismiss Laurie Ellis after woeful run of one win in nine games

Queen’s Park will start 2022 on the search for the club’s fourth manager in two years after dismissing Laurie Ellis on Hogmanay.

Queens Park head coach Laurie Ellis has been dismissed after a 1-0 defeat by Airdrie left the club 13 points off the top of League One. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Head coach Ellis had stepped up during the summer and assumed the first-team duties from outgoing League Two winning boss Ray McKinnon after 18 months in charge.

But both he, and assistant Grant Murray, will leave the Hampden-based club, currently ground-sharing at Partick Thistle’s Firhill.

A statement on December 31 – two years to the day since Mark Roberts departed the Spiders role – explained the decision taken ‘reluctantly’ with the one-time League One leaders slipping 13 points off leaders Cove Rangers.

Chief Executive Leeann Dempster said: “We are grateful to Laurie and Grant for their work, we appreciate their efforts and wish both every success in future. We are now looking forward to bringing in a new management team that will help us build the next successful chapter as we seek to realise our ambitions for Queen’s Park on and off the pitch.”

Under Ellis, then assistant to Ray McKinnon, the club won League Two comfortable and with the former Raith defender at the helm started 2021-22 well in League One.

The appointment of AZ Alkmaar’s development boss Marijn Beuker as director of football and a 6-0 thrashing of Falkirk caught the headlines last month, but papered over the cracks of a miserable run with that one win in nine games since mid-October which prompted the club to make a change.

Defender Peter Grant Junior and Gardner Spiers will oversee training and games until a new appointment is made, starting with Sunday’s traditional derby match against Clyde.

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