Queens surely made absolutely sure they will not be involved in the end of season relegation mix, and at the same time kept alive their faint hopes of catching Dundee United in 4th, with a well deserved 2-0 win at Somerset Park today. The goals arrived late courtesy of the clear man of the match Stephen Dobbie but Queens dominated the game from minute one and fully merited the points. The loss sends Ayr to the bottom of the table and they will have their work cut out over the next few weeks to escape relegation but as we know well, Ian McCall has that sort of thing up his sleeve!

Gary Naysmith made just one enforced change to his team following the 4-2 win over Dundee United last week. The injured Derek Lyle wasn`t risked and Lyndon Dykes started in his place. With the u20`s playing in the South of Scotland Cup on the same day, we went with only six subs rather than call up another player. Ayr were without centre half Conrad Balatoni and went with an attacking line up including two out and out forwards in El Alagui and Moore.

Dobbie and Fleming show Part 1

We were seven minutes in before Queens created the first of many good chances for the afternoon. Carmichael`s cross in was a good one and Stephen Dobbie headed just wide, taking a bang to the face into the bargain for his troubles. A minute later it looked for all the world like Danny Carmichael had opened the scoring after being laid in by Dobbie but his low shot was partially blocked by Greg Fleming and spun wide, narrowly missing the post. Midway through the half Joe Thomson fired a shot on the turn following a corner kick about two feet over the crossbar and shortly after Dobbie`s 35 yard free kick drifted similarly about a foot over Fleming`s bar. If it seems like one way traffic then it`s because it largely was with Lee Robinson pretty much a spectator for most of the half. A terrific cross from the right from Dobbie was missed altogether by Dykes, who also failed to score when Carmichael crossed similarly from the other side and, after Farid El Alagui had been forced off by injury, another Dobbie shot was parried away by Fleming before the break.

Fleming beats Brownlie

Queens had completely dominated the half but had nothing to show for it. They had to be wary though because they pretty much did the same on their previous visit to Somerset Park this season and then ended up losing to Cairney`s long range strike in the second half. Ayr began the second half by forcing a succession of corner kicks but none came to anything and Queens were soon back in the ascendency.

Dobbie poked another effort goalward which was scrambled away by Fleming before he wrong footed the keeper and the entire defence with a tremendous change of direction shot across his own body which scraped past the post as everyone could only watch. Just after the hour mark Darren Brownlie almost scored with a looping header from a deep free kick but it landed on the roof of the net. Connor Murray was introduced on the right in place of Dom Thomas who had gone quiet in the second half but the balance of play remained unchanged. Next to try his luck was Lyndon Dykes who beat two players before firing in a low shot well saved at his near post by Fleming.

It was beginning to look like one of those days but the deadlock was finally broken on 71 minutes. John Rankin did well to win possession in midfield and playedthe ball forward to Dykes who flicked it on at the edge of the area towards that man Stephen Dobbie. Dobbie struck it first time like a rocket from 18 yards and it was past Fleming and into the net before the keeper could react. If that was good, it was followed within five minutes by an even better one. It was all about Dobbie this time, collecting a ball from our half pretty much on his own he broke up the right side and jinked inside two defenders, nutmegged a third and then comfortably fired the the ball past Fleming again for his 23rd of the season and 78th for Queens.

Dobbie celebrates his first with goal maker Dykes

Dobbie dispatches his second

Second goal and acknowledges the crowd

Three minutes later came Lee Robinson`s only serious action of the day when defender Daryll Meggat, seeing nothing else on, strode forward from the back and struck a fierce shot from more than 40 yards which moved a lot in the air. The keeper managed to block the ball in the first instance and collect it again once he`d batted it down before anyone else could react to it.

The remaining ten minute pretty much became a battle between Dobbie and Fleming to see if Dobbie could bag a hat trick. Three times in that time the striker hit quality efforts at goal, three times the keeper denied him with good saves. For good measure, Jacobs and Hilson also had decent attempts to add to the scoreline. Hilson had replaced Dan Carmichael with 9 minutes left and Connor McManus replaced Dykes for the final five minutes, Murray joining Dobbie up top after that. In the final minute Robinson collected a tame Harkins effort near hs post whilst Darren Brownlie got himself booked for kicking the ball away following a somewhat harshly awarded foul against Jacobs.

This was a richly deserved win in the end and in reality should probably have seen a much wider margin of victory. If we play like this next week then we might just be able to nick something at Easter Road too. Hibs though will be chasing down the title and that will be a very difficult fixture.