SFL Focus: David Rae helping youngsters shine in quest for cup

Queens’ semi-final win over Dundee United represented the first time in the competition they have defeated a top-flight opponent but the progression of the Dumfries team is still worthy of heavy credit.

Celtic will be the strong favourites to claim the trophy at Hampden on Monday, even if Queens are not without hope. The Queens squad which saw off United included two 15-year-olds and two 16-year-olds, a hint of their promise.

“I haven’t been able to make any of the earlier rounds but there is no question I’ll be there on Monday night,” said David Rae, the Queens chairman.

“It has been a tremendous achievement, there is no doubt about that. Credit has to go to the coaches, they have gelled the team and got them playing so well.”

Queens have already received contact from bigger clubs regarding their youth talent, such has been the wider interest in their final run. The First Division outfit have no qualms about such players moving on, even if they understandably hope to be suitably recompensed for the work done in progressing those teenagers.

“They were 2-1 and 4-2 down in Dundee and managed to recover,” Rae added. “To do that is a terrific tribute to the guys who have taught the players so well over the years.

“To go to Hampden Park and face Celtic, the biggest club in Scotland just now? It will really put Queen of the South on the map again. It will be the biggest game of these boys’ lives.”

At first-team level, there is a more pressing and worrying issue. Albeit they are in no way detached, Queens lie bottom of the First Division as Livingston visit Palmerston today. “This really is D-day,” the chairman insisted. “We have got to win the next two games, Livingston and Raith, to have any hope I think. We are a much-improved side, we are actually playing well, but the teams around us have been picking up points too.

“If we lose to Livingston, I feel that’s it all over, even if that wouldn’t be the case mathematically. We need to get the situation back into our own hands.”

Not that relegation would prove utterly ruinous. Queens have only two senior players and one first-team youngster retained on contracts for next season, allowing them to re-build with a substantially lower cost base if need be. “And the big difference is we have been able to play all our home games as scheduled this season,” Rae said. “Last season we had no home league matches between 13 November and the first week in February. It was like a tidal wave of cash going out with nothing coming back in.”

Rae’s colourful involvement with Queens almost came to an end earlier this month. The chairman received an offer for his 30 per cent shareholding in the club from an English consortium, with the bid instead rejected after some careful consideration. The 74-year-old has followed Queens since he was 11 but financial reality hits every club in the Scottish Football League as routine. Queens reached the Scottish Cup final of 2008 and subsequently competed in Europe; revenue raised from that, however, was never likely to last for even the medium-term albeit the club carries no bank debt whatsoever.

“We couldn’t get credit from the bank even if we wanted it,” Rae said. “The bank are clamping down on who they lend money to and football clubs are bottom of the list.

“I just didn’t think the English consortium was the right thing for here. I have got to protect the interests of the club.

“I said at the time that I would hand my shares down to my nieces and nephews but if someone I knew, someone local, came forward then it could be different. Let’s face it, nobody is going to get involved with Queen of the South to make money.”