We round off the second third of league games in this year’s shortened campaign at Palmerston tomorrow, with Dunfermline making the visit to Dumfries.
The Pars have struggled on the road recently, not winning in six away games, including losses at Arbroath and Hearts in their last two. We, on the other hand, have improved our home form significantly and are undefeated in four at Palmerston, having not lost at home this calendar year.
The only meeting between the sides so far this season was the third league fixture, which ended in a 3-2 win for Dunfermline on Halloween. Goals from Euan Murray, Declan McManus (p) and Paul Watson were too much for us, with our goals coming from Stephen Dobbie (p) and Joe McKee.
The East End Park side last visited Palmerston in February last year. Gary Oliver gave Queens the lead before Gabby McGill equalised and Danny Devine scored to give them the advantage, only for Stephen Dobbie to draw things level. However a late goal from Lee Ashcroft meant the Pars travelled home with all three points.
All three goals for the away side that day came from corners. With Queens missing a few centre-backs Iain Wilson and David Devine were forced to form a makeshift combination at the heart of the defence.
While corners have been the achilleas heel of this Queens side for some time, an in-form Rohan Ferguson and the use of Ayo Obileye in midfield has helped us improve significantly in recent weeks. In the last three games, we have faced 28 corners, conceding no goals.
Our injuries are clearing up; Rhys McCabe came off the bench for the last half hour at Dens Park while Dobbie played 75 minutes last week. Aidan Fitzpatrick also returned to the bench at Dundee.
In the lead up to the game tomorrow, Manager Allan Johnston said “It has been a good run for us recently, with six wins, two draws and one defeat since we faced Dundee on Boxing Day. Our last three games in an eight day period have been particularly pleasing, with seven points from nine against difficult opposition, Hearts, Inverness and Dundee and with a bit more luck it would’ve been maximum points as we were so close to taking the win against the league leaders in our last outing at Palmerston.
Last week at Dundee, it was another great team performance. We restricted them to very few chances and had a deserved lead at the end of the first half. We made it difficult for ourselves after the break but won the game with an unbelievable finish.
We have good players and have shown we can compete against the top teams. Add to that, we have players coming back from injury so we are in a good place at the moment. We are a hard team to beat just now; we are defending better and are scoring goals so we are going in the right direction. However, we won’t get carried away and it is a cliché but we will just continue to take it one game at a time because it is such a tight league and anyone can go on a run. We are one of those teams who can’t afford to take their foot of the pedal.
This week we welcome Dunfermline to Palmerston, a side I obviously know well. Again they have quality players and are up challenging at the top as expected. So we know it will be another difficult game for us, but we will go into it with confidence and we have to keep doing what we have been doing, working hard”.
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Kick off – 3pm