Queen of the South 2 - 1 Ayr United: Queen’s grab their opportunity as Ayr’s hopes go south

Published on 01/04/2012 00:00

THE significance of yesterday’s victory was etched all over the faces of the Queen’s players at the final whistle after they gave every ounce of energy and effort in a match they had to win to remain in contention to avoid the drop.

Queen’s, who had only scored two goals in their previous five games, showed a much more positive attitude from the outset and took the lead after 14 minutes. Danny Carmichael whipped over a cross from the right which Kevin Holt headed down into the path of Allan Johnston, who ran on and crashed the ball high past Ayr goalkeeper Kevin Cuthbert from 12-yards for a terrific opening goal.

Queen’s, who were the hungrier and more committed side, deservedly went two up in 24 minutes when Scott McLaughlin’s corner from the right was knocked in from a yard out by the impressive Sam Parkin.

Palmerston boss Gus MacPherson said: “We had stressed the importance and should have had the game out of sight.

“But we made life far more difficult for ourselves in the second half. The most important thing was getting the three points. From now to the end of the season it’s about points not performance.”

Ayr, the solitary part-time team in the First Division – who were widely tipped not to stay the course and favourites to finish bottom – have not been out of the bottom three since August.

But such has been the resolve of Brian Reid’s side that they have battled on manfully.

Ayr passed up a glorious chance to pull a goal back in 66 minutes when Queen’s pair Holt and Chris Higgins collided, allowing Ayr’s Liam Tomsett a run through on goal, but he blasted wildly over.

United threw themselves a lifeline in 77 minutes when Michael Moffat created space for himself at the edge of the area and curled a low right foot shot past Queen’s goalkeeper Lee Robinson from 16 yards.

Ayr boss Reid commented: “We never started the game well at all and lost two cheap goals from set pieces. It was a well below par performance and we have to snap out of it and get back on track as quickly as possible. We let our travelling support down, we are far better than that.”