Queen's Park set for historic Hampden swansong ahead of stadium move

Queen's Park have played at Hampden Park for over 100 years. (Photo by Gary Hutchison / SNS Group)

The League 2 leaders host Stranraer on Saturday at the national stadium as the lower leagues resume action following a three-month shutdown.

They are due to relocate elsewhere from the end of this month while Hampden is being prepared for hosting four Euro 2020 games this summer. Queen’s Park are still scheduled to play four home league games following Saturday’s potentially historic clash and it now looks as though these will take place at Clyde’s base in Cumbernauld.

The club have only been playing at Hampden this season after being granted a temporary lease by the SFA, who bought the stadium from Queen’s Park in a £5m deal last August.

Queen’s Park were due to move into Lesser Hampden next door, but renovation work has been severely disrupted by the pandemic.

This has been compounded by a dispute with the building firm involved with reports there has been no work carried out at the site since January. The plan is to turn the stadium into a 1,700-capacity new home for an ambitious club with designs on reaching the Championship next year.

Chief executive Leeann Dempster admitted in an interview posted on the club’s YouTube channel earlier this week that work at Lesser Hampden had “stalled”. She added that a “preferred option” of stadium at which to play out the current season had been identified.

Queen’s Park, for so long Scotland’s sole amateur outfit in senior football, voted to turn professional in 2019.

They have played at the current site at Hampden for over 100 years. The club moved out of the national stadium for part of the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons to accommodate the Commonwealth Games and shared Airdrie’s Excelsior stadium.

Meanwhile, the club have confirmed deals to bring in midfielder Luca Connell and goalkeeper Ryan Mullen on loan from Celtic. “The acquisition of both players really does strengthen the squad for the run-in,” said manager Ray McKinnon.

“I am absolutely delighted to get both deals over the line and get the players in for what is going to be a very busy period ahead."

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