Goals giveaway makes Gus growl
Queen’s make it easy for league leaders Raith
Queen’s Park ............ 1 Raith Rovers ............. 3
Queen’s Park boss Gus MacPherson felt his team played into Raith’s hands as they suffered their sixth game without a win.
Rovers found themselves 3-0 up after 30 minutes at Hampden, with strikes from Euan Murray and Liam Buchanan either side of a 25-yard thunderbolt finish from Willis Furtado.
Queen’s got a goal back before the break through Aidan Keena but The Spiders never looked like overturning the deficit.
MacPherson said: “We made it very, very difficult for ourselves.
“The same as at Ayr United last week, the opposition didn’t need to work very hard for their goals.
“But credit to our group, they kept plugging away and worked extremely hard and didn’t make the individual mistakes which cost us in the first half.”
There was not a lot between the teams but a Raith corner after 15 minutes changed all that. The ball came off Conor McVey at the near post and fell nicely into the path of Murray who belted it past a helpless Michael White.
Two minutes later Queen’s lost the ball deep in Raith territory and a quick ball released Furtado who galloped forward before crashing an unstoppable shot into the net from 25 yards. Queen’s tried to hit back straight away and David Galt went close with a long-range effort after Aaron Lennox miscued a clearance but John Heron managed to get back to save the blushes of his stranded keeper.
Lewis Magee will not want to look back on Raith’s third goal which arrived after 30 minutes. He made a hash of an attempted clearance and Buchanan had a simple task to roll the ball into the net from six yards.
It was bad and it nearly got worse after 36 minutes when Furtado smacked a shot off the post which rolled along the line and wide. MacPherson made his first change at this point, replacing Robbie Leitch with Jamie Gullan. And after 40 minutes, Queen’s got their goal. Gullan ran forward and fed Docherty, who played in Keena. The Hearts loanee shot from out wide and although the effort was deflected, nobody was taking his first goal at Hampden away from him. Furtado had been a constant threat in the first period and forced White off his line early in the second period to avoid further damage. Then the keeper saved well from Buchanan as Raith tried to turn the screw inside the opening five minutes.
Cummins had a header just wide from a Galt free-kick as Queen’s tried to get a foothold in the game.
Just after the hour, Queen’s were lucky to escape when White was beaten to the ball outside his box by Buchanan.
This time the visitors could not make the most of the chance. The keeper then did brilliantly to tip a cross off the head of Furtado, before diving at the feet of Buchanan to deny him a second goal.
A Gregor Fotheringham foul on Bobby Barr brought the inevitable yellow card from Graham Beaton as the clock reached 83. White produced a miraculous stop as the free- kick came in to tip a Buchanan effort wide.
But deep into injury time, Beaton sent Fotheringham packing for a foul on Lewis Vaughan to round off a disappointing afternoon.