Queen of the South -V- Inverness CT - Preview

Can we be King of Queens?

Down to the nitty gritty now and another crucial game ahead as we travel to Palmerston Park Dumfries for what is the start of the proverbial six-pointers with only four games left in the Championship. Queens on Saturday at 3:00pm, our sixth away game out of the last seven, then Dundee (H), Hearts (A), Ayr United (H). It's a difficult closing run to the season when you consider our immediate target, Dunfermline, close out the season against bottom teams Arbroath and Alloa. As the table stands, we are only three points ahead of Queens going in to this game and they still have a game in hand.

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We started the week in fine fettle as we clinically beat Morton 4-1 at Cappielow thanks to stunning goals from Allardice, Todorov (2) and Dan Mackay. The strikers must have taken a bottle of Hot Toddy's stunning goal linctus as every goal was sublime, maybe none better than Toddy's second goal when he chested the ball down and volleyed spectacularly past keeper McAdams. We toiled for a time on the poor surface at Cappielow before two quick goals approaching the break put us in control. Ton pulled one back as they rallied after the break but the wind was taken out of their sails with Toddy's spectacular intervention and Dan added the icing on the cake when he curled a beauty of his own into the top corner. Great goals and a good win at what is often a difficult place to get all three points at times. Neil McCann was full of praise for the side after that one, and rightly so. 

Enjoy these goals again, not often you get four crackers in the same game...

Here's the league table ahead of the Hearts v Alloa game on Friday night.

0 - 1 (H)

3 - 0 (A)

3 - 1 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

2 - 0 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

1 - 2 (H)

3 - 3 (A)

0 - 0 (H)

2 - 0 (A)

Dunfermline recently took a 5-1 hammering from Raith Rovers but bounced back to hold Hearts to a 0-0 draw which is the result that yoyo'ed them back above us momentarily. Such is the fixture chaos this season, it won't become clear until the final two games who is maybe going where.

Queen of the South went out of the cup on Monday night, going down 3-1 to an impressive Hibernian. James Maxwell scored what proved to be a late consolation goal for the Doonhamers.  Nortei Nortey scored the only goal in the Highlands but is likely to miss this game. Their form shows that since they beat us in Inverness they have won four and lost three including the cup game with Hibs. During that run they have had impressive wins over Dundee, Dunfermline Hearts and Arbroath, but suffered defeats to Alloa and Morton. It's a funny old game!

A repeat of the away game at Palmerston earlier in the season would be maybe stretching the bounds of possibility a tad, but a backs to the wall scrappy win will suffice. Points make prizes as they say and that's what we need to do to keep in the hunt for a top four finish. Who knew we would be in this position after a season destroyed by injuries, weather and viruses?

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Duffy, Doran, Keatings and Welsh missed out at Morton, Welsh being replaced after the warm up but he could be available for this crucial game. Sadly, McDonald's season is probably a right-off. Nikolay Todorov scored his ninth goal of the season, and what a goal it was. Toddy is on a roll just now and young Dan Mackay notched his seventh. Good return from these guys of late after a slow start to the season.

Allan Johnstone had this team out against Hibs in the Scottish Cup: 

Ferguson, Gibson, Buchanan, Breen, Maxwell, Obileye, McCabe, Dickson, Joseph (Jones 56′), Dobbie (McKee 76′), Shields (Mebude 76′)

As always, Stephen Dobbie is a big threat and Connor Shields is the man on form with plenty pace and power, and like Toddy, nine goals in the bank as well. Nortei Nortey looks likely to miss out but Dan Pybus could return and Isaiah Jones played for half an hour in the cup game on his return from injury.