Storied Scottish football club puts 135 years of history on the line - but it's not all rosy amid drum row

On the night before Queen’s Park last played in a national cup final, a bar in Dundee sought to entice customers by advertising in the local evening paper.

“Scottish Cup final, Celtic v Queen’s Park: special wires every few minutes by our own representative – direct from Ibrox Park”. It added: “Also, all the principal Scotch and English results wired to the popular rendezvous.” Who needs Ceefax? Or X for that matter.

Drinkers in Hood’s Bar, in Dundee’s Hilltown, were royally entertained as the updates arrived, with Celtic emerging victorious 4-3. It was 1900. Queen’s Park, ten-times winners of the Scottish Cup, were already in the process of falling out with the future.

Queen's Park train ahead of their big day on Sunday. | SNS Group

“Better luck next year,” might have been the gist of the consoling words offered by Celtic manager Willie Maley towards the defeated opposition. If so, such a wish proved forlorn. There was no better fortune the year after, when they lost to Hearts in the second round. Or the year after that or the year after that…

They haven’t been to a national senior cup final of any sort since that April afternoon at the turn of the last but one century, when 17,000 turned up at Ibrox and The Scottish Referee, the bi-weekly sports paper, noted Queen’s Park’s terrible few days.

“It is rather a novel, and, we should think, rather humiliating, experience for the Queen’s Park to lose two cups in one single, sad week,” they wrote, with reference to the club's second string having lost in a Second XI Cup final against Third Lanark a few days earlier.

Run after remarkable Rangers result

It would get worse than losing two cup finals in such close succession. The marked decline in the 20th century underlined the difficulty in remaining competitive in a professional era when wedded to a strict amateur ethos. It’s perhaps no coincidence Queen’s Park are returning to the big(gish) time just over five years after abolishing 152 years of amateur status following a historic vote in 2019. They did of course stand on the cusp of something truly remarkable as recently as May 2023, when a win against Dundee would have sealed promotion to the top flight (they lost 5-3).

Still, it’s hard to overstate the significance of their SPFL Trust Trophy final appearance against Livingston at the Falkirk Stadium on Sunday. Although according to the club over 1200 tickets have been sold, it’s equally hard to understand what’s been described as the lack of cup final fever around Mount Florida. Consulting the team’s recent results might be a good place to start appreciating where some of the disaffection is coming from.

Not many teams head into cup finals on the back of five successive defeats. But even that is confusing because this run began shortly after one of the club’s finest-ever results - and Scottish football’s greatest-ever shocks.

Steven MacLean will be in charge of Queen's Park against Livingston. | SNS Group

The 1-0 Scottish Cup win over Rangers as recently as seven weeks ago simply deepens the puzzle. The architect of this win, Callum Davidson, has since been sacked – little more than a month after such a result for the ages in fact. Some argue the Championship fixture against bottom side Airdrie at Hampden next Wednesday night is the real cup final – Queen’s Park are too near the relegation zone for comfort. Professionalism means the stakes are now higher - as Davidson, and a few before him, can attest.

Steven MacLean is next to have his head on the block, though he is only in place until the end of the season. He is treading a fine line between sympathy for and perhaps even anger on Davidson’s behalf and recognising progress will inevitably leave many victims in its wake. With a new lease signed at Lochinch, where the club’s academy is based, the emphasis has been firmly put on youth development, something surely few can take issue with. It will take time to translate into shirts filled at first-team level. Even so, the seven on-loan players, including Leon King and Adam Devine from Rangers, is something else that feels a bit unQueen’s Park-like.

“They are putting building blocks in all the right places," said MacLean, speaking earlier in the week at a pre-Cup final press conference and, with his use of ‘they’, sounding very much like he knows he is caretaker manager with a capital C. "They are growing. You can see that with the training ground and obviously the stadium. It is an exciting time but a slow process as well. Obviously, you have to make sure you don’t get there too soon. I am sure the owner and the board will get it right."

Scotland’s wealthiest businessman

It was probably just a slip of the tongue, something easily done, but the reference to "owner" did make the ears prick up since Queen's Park have no official individual owner as such. They remain, ostensibly at least, committee-run for members. Of course, it’s no secret that Lord Willie Haughey, one of Scotland’s wealthiest businessmen, is bankrolling the club and has been for some time despite not being an official office bearer. Although Graeme Shields is the president, Haughey, a former Celtic director, is the power behind the throne. Meanwhile, Darren O'Donnell, who is married to Haughey's niece, is director of football.

These are arrangements not everyone feels comfortable about, hence some of the disconnect apparent between fans and club. “It should mean a little bit more,” acknowledges Enzo Tamagnini, a supporter for over 20 years, with reference to this weekend’s final. “But a lot of the frustration stems from people’s general discontent with the way the club is being run at the moment, which is a shame really. It has put a bit of a dampener on it for people.”

Which brings us to the issue of The Drum. A ‘young team’ of supporters, around 25 in number, have started taking a drum to games, which would seem a normal part of football fan culture these days. “They don’t cause trouble,” reports Tamagnini.

Callum Davidson lost his job as manager of Queen's Park earlier this month. | SNS Group

“They are vocal, they stand up, they take their drum to away games. They’ve been trying to get their drum into Hampden but have been told they are not allowed because not everyone wants it and the drum is divisive.”

The club issued a survey to members and season ticket holders. The wording of the question requiring a yes or no answer raised eyebrows since it was couched to make it seem disloyal to want a drum: “Visiting supporters with a large travelling support, including a drum, may generate more vociferous support for our opponents and disadvantage our first team in matches at Hampden. Are you happy to have increased support for our opponents at key matches to the detriment of our own team?”

The response to the survey, issued in January, has not yet been relayed to supporters. “The club has engaged with fans over the matchday experience both throughout this season and with a view to ongoing development next season, details of which will be relayed to QPFC members in due course,” said a spokesman for the club when contacted earlier this week.

A capacity not befitting of ambition

“In the meantime, everyone at Queen’s Park FC is relishing the SPFL Trust Trophy Final on Sunday – the club’s first national final in 125 years - and look forward to marking the historic day with more than 1200 Spiders supporters in Falkirk.”

Neutrals will wish them well. For so long Queen's Park have had to watch as others enjoyed days in the sun. Worse, such frolics have normally taken place on their own patch.

Now it’s Queen’s Park’s turn. Not at Hampden, sadly – now that would have been a story, although it’s no longer their home even if they do currently play there. A refurbished Lesser Hampden awaits next season, at long last, amid concerns that with a capacity of just 900, it’s completely unsuitable at present given the scope of Queen’s Park stated ambitions.

Queen's Park recently stunned Rangers at Ibrox. | SNS Group

It’s just another issue dogging this historic club. If there were such things as podcasts around to preview the 1900 Scottish Cup final, one imagines it would have been a little more upbeat in tone than the current edition – titled “Cup Final…..Fever?” - of the excellent Spiders Talk Podcast, where three passionate fans, including Tamagnini, debate the current goings on. Phrases like “thoroughly depressed” and words such as “abject” are sprinkled liberally through the discourse.

All MacLean can do is concentrate on trying to win football matches. Sunday would not be a bad place to start having suffered a 2-1 defeat against Morton last weekend in his first match in temporary charge.

If he thought too deeply about making a connection with such a dim and distant past when he delivers his pre-match talk, it would surely risk a wobble. No one since 1900 has stood where he has stood. He could lead Queen’s Park to a first national senior cup final victory since 1893, when they beat Celtic in a replayed Scottish Cup final (there has admittedly been plenty of Amateur Scottish Cup final appearances).

Callum Davidson ‘will be watching’

No one, other than perhaps his predecessor, seems better qualified than MacLean to make history. He played a pivotal part in St Johnstone’s first-ever major trophy win in 2014 against Dundee United in the Scottish Cup. MacLean scored the second goal in a 2-0 win. He was then by Davidson’s side on the coaching staff as the Perth club claimed an unforgettable cup double in 2020-21. It will seem strange not to have his pal next to him in the dugout on Sunday. “Callum will want the best for Queen’s Park, 100 per cent. I’d imagine he will be watching, for the guy he is,” he said.

Someone who won’t be watching is MacLean’s 23-year-old son, Luke. He is on a birthday weekend away in London with his girlfriend, Emma, and will be flying back when the game is on. Wife Gillian and daughter Ruby will be there, with the latter hot footing it from a netball game for Edinburgh Accies against Glasgow University in Glasgow, which starts at 9.45am.

MacLean is planning to go and watch to help take his mind off things. Probably a good idea when over 130 years of history is lying on the line later in the day. No pressure, Steven.