NEIL Baxter's article, Field of dreams (May 18), was accurate and informative as far as it related to the rebuilding of Hampden Park. It was however, way off the mark with its references to the custodians of Hampden Park, the Queen's Park Football Club Ltd. Contrary to Mr Baxter's belief, Queen's Park are not a team whose ambition is centred on staying in the Third Division nor do they prefer to serve as a youth development facility.
It is the aim of everyone associated with Queen's Park that it raises its standard of play to ensure that it leaves the confines of the Third Division and the very fact that we are now in the throes of appointing our first-ever full-time coach belies Mr Baxter's comments.
The fact that the club espouses amateurism has to some extent turned it into a youth development facility but that is not the club's preferred role which is that the players that it produces remain with the club. However, in the current day and age those of us who run the club are sanguine enough to realise that that is not always possible.
The club, however, does strive to ensure that all of its quality players remain at Hampden for as long as possible and in recent years quite a number of players who could have earned money in the professional ranks have opted to remain at Hampden. That is something which the club hopes will continue.
Mr Baxter must have had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he stated that Queen's Park have never been in the business of creating footballing success. Albeit that our footballing success was in the dim and distant past, it should not be forgotten that next to Rangers and Celtic, Queen's Park have won the Scottish Cup more often than any other side and they also reached the final of the FA Cup.
Perhaps with all the upheavals in Scottish football, a resurgence of Queen's Park and the principles that it stands for may be just around the corner. If Mr Baxter is a betting man he might consider risking a pound or two of his fee on the Spiders' promotion from the Third Division next season.
Martin Smith,
Director,
Queen's Park Football Club,
Hampden Park, Glasgow.
May 20.
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