Queen’s undone by a late winner
Spiders lose physical battle against top dogs Ayr
Gus MacPherson admits his players lost the physical battle with Ayr as a late winner stole all three points for the home side.
Alan Forrest’s late strike gave United their eighth win in a row – equalling a 30-year club record.
Craig Moore fired the Honest Men ahead from the spot after Lewis Magee bundled over Lawrence Shankland in the box.
A Conor McVey header and a Craig Reid own goal turned the tables for Queen’s, but Ayr threw on three subs and stormed forward.
Declan McDaid levelled from a Shankland pass before Forrest struck with two minutes to go after Shankland played him in.
“We should have taken something from the game but we lost it from a physical point of view and not the football side,” MacPherson said. “When the game settled down, we were the better team and got ourselves in front.
“David Galt was the best player on the park again. In one-against-one situations he’s a real handful and has been very impressive in the last four or five weeks.”
Ayr had an early chance when Shankland lifted a ball over the top for Michael Moffat to race clear but his shot was blocked by Spiders’ stopper Michael White. All looked good for the league leaders when Lewis Magee hauled down Shankland and Moore took his season’s tally to 18 by drilling home the penalty kick on 24 minutes. But the Spiders began to pose a threat and Billy Mortimer almost levelled when he headed over. Minutes later, he was booked for flattening Ayr keeper Jordan Hart. The visitors deservedly levelled just before the break when Galt clipped in a cross and McVey nipped in at the near post to head in. The momentum had certainly been with Queen’s at the end of the first period, and that continued after the break. Two minutes after the restart, Anton Brady and Sean Burns worked well to give Galt another chance to hit the byeline and dink over a cross. However, it was hit a little too hard and the home defence cleared. Ayr were still on the back foot and after 49 minutes, Queen’s took the lead. Dominic Docherty drove a vicious ball in from the left and Reid smacked it into his own net as he desperately tried to clear. It was no more than the Spiders deserved but it certainly stung Ayr.
Queen’s were finding it hard to threaten the home goal although they came agonisingly close to establishing a two-goal cushion when Galt got clear once more and cut the ball back into the danger area. He set up Mortimer but somehow he missed from a yard.
Ian McCall threw on all three subs to provide a spark and got what he was looking for as his side equalised on 79 minutes.
White had made a couple of great saves moments earlier but couldn’t keep out McDaid’s strike which went under him after the United man received a pass from Shankland.
And disaster struck for the visitors as Ayr grabbed the winner with two minutes left. Shankland held the ball up before rolling it into the path of Forrest, whose angled drive found the target.