It’s the final game of the season for us tomorrow night as high flying Dundee visit Dumfries.
It will bring the curtain down on a unique season that’s saw us beat every team in the league, but also lose to them all, with the exception of Arbroath who have failed to pick up a win against us.
Not only is it our final game of the campaign, it will also be the final time we get to see the King of the South, Stephen Dobbie, playing in a Queens shirt. 5,228 days after his Queens debut and 5,218 days after his first Queens goals, both of which came against Dundee, the Hall of Famer will leave Palmerston a club legend. It would be fitting if he could find the back of the net against a side he’s enjoyed so much success against over the years.
‘Dobs’ bagged a brace against Dundee in January 2007, his first goals for the club, and netted Queens’ opening goal in our Scottish Cup quarter-final win in 2008 at Palmerston. There’s been more memorable moments against the Dens Park side since he returned to the club too, scoring a Scottish Cup hat-trick in January 2019 against Dark Blues, as well as grabbing an injury time winner at Dens Park later that year, just 27 seconds after Danny Johnson had equalised for the home team.
Dundee have been on a fine run of form of late though, winning four and drawing three of their last seven games, a sequence which has seen them in with a shout of a second placed finish. To do so, they will require a win at Palmerston and Raith Rovers not to win at home to Hearts. In the unlikely circumstances that Rovers lose by seven to the Jambos, Dundee would only require a draw. James McPake has already stated that he will be keeping an eye on things at Starks Park, which will dictate what substitutions he makes on Friday night.
And while it’s now known that Championship football is on the cards for us next season, there are still places and prize money up for grabs. If Arbroath win at home to Morton, we will need to pick at least up a point to ensure a 6th place finish. A draw or a defeat for the Gayfield side isn’t enough to catch us. The Doonhamers can, mathematically at least, still finish 5th, however that would require a win against Dundee, Inverness to lose at home to Ayr and a massive 16 goal swing.
It’s been goals galore in the previous meetings between the sides this season. Osman Sow’s hat-trick on Boxing Day saw them over the line, despite a late Connor Shields consolation goal that sparked the strikers exceptional form in the new year. And in February Queens dished out a 3-2 defeat at Dens Park as an Ayo Obileye penalty, along with goals from Rhys Breen and Wullie Gibson, gave Queens some revenge.
Barring any fresh injury problems, it will be a similar squad to the one that took the field in Ayr on Saturday. The Dee will be without Jordan Marshall at left-back, the former Doonhamers picked up an injury earlier in April that will rule him out for the season.
Ahead of our final game of the season, Manager Allan Johnston said:
“It was great to get the point against Ayr to secure our place in the Championship. We were gutted the week before with the result at Dunfermline as we could’ve been challenging for the top four. We knew it would be a big ask but we weren’t far away. Once that was gone, it was about securing our place in the Championship so it’s job done.
The boys have been unbelievable during the second half to the season. They went on a great run and narrowly missed the play offs and after the start we had that speaks volumes of the players.
Planning for the next campaign has already started and a lot of the boys have done well this year so the sooner we can try to get them tied up the better.
We finish the season with a home against Dundee. There are a lot of good teams in the league so we are glad that we are not having to get something on the last day like other teams. However, there is still something to play for as we want to finish as high as possible and round off the campaign with a victory.
It has been a tough season without fans inside the grounds but we thank you for your continued support and look forward to welcome you all back to Palmerston as soon as possible. Stay safe”.
In recent games we have had people turning up trying to view matches from outside the ground. We would like to remind people that this is still a criminal offence and therefore request that everyone adheres to the law and stays away.
The game is live on QOSTV.
Season ticket holders of course have free access to the stream, whilst it’s available on PPV for just £10.
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Tickets are also available for our virtual 50/50 draw.
Kick off – 7.45 pm