QUEENS CREEP INTO EQUATION
Flying under the radar is ideal for us, says Dowie
LIKE the club he now plays for, Andy Dowie has learned to fly under the radar. He’s 32 now and, as a Queen of the South defender, accepts his place in Scottish football’s natural pecking order. As a young player at Rangers, there was the promise of something better, something bigger. When it failed to materialise, he had no illusions why.
‘I know fine well that I wasn’t good enough,’ said Dowie bluntly. ‘I’m not going to say I never got a chance because I did. I never took it. Playing at centre-half back then were Craig Moore and Lorenzo Amoruso for the majority of the time.
‘It was difficult. They had big players back then. I just wasn’t good enough at the end of the day. It didn’t work out. These things happen.
‘I played a couple of pre-season games and I made my debut in a league game away to Dunfermline. And that was it.’
Times have changed, of course. And there is no one in the current Rangers squad, which travels to Dumfries this weekend, he would call a friend. ‘No, they’re all away,’ he continued. ‘None of them are there. After everything that’s happened at Rangers, none of the boys (I played with) are there.’
For Rangers, this is the nub of the problem. The reason the Ibrox club are scraping around for promotion to the top tier. The reason people are now openly speculating that they could suffer an ignominious defeat to Queen of the South in the play-off quarter-final.
They lost 2-0 and 3-0 on their previous two visits to Dumfries. There were no Amorusos or Moores in the Rangers defence then and there are none now. Bilel Mohsni, Lee McCulloch, Marius Zaliukas and Darren McGregor are the options Stuart McCall has for the heart of his defence.
Mohsni is lining up a move to Germany and McCulloch has recently been booed by his own supporters. The reasons Queen of the South have quietly crept up on the rails, unheralded, are not hard to find.
‘ Hibs, Hearts and Rangers shouldn’t really be in this league,’ said Dowie (right). ‘They’re going to get all the coverage. But we understand that and it doesn’t bother us in the slightest. We just work away quietly and we’ve had a great season again.
‘It has suited us perfectly to fly under the radar. That’s the second season in a row that we have finished fourth so whatever happens on Saturday, it’s been a s uccessful season for us.’
An exemplary, homely club who train at Clyde’s Broadwood Stadium in Cumbernauld — Dumfries is a long way from the Central Belt where t heir players live — the low expectations at this club are there for a reason.
Their highest finish in the top tier was fourth in 1934. They have won the Second Division three times, reached a Scottish Cup Final in 2008 and boast the highest free-standing floodlights in Scottish football. They gave Hughie Gallacher, arguably Scotland’s greatest ever goal scorer, his break in the professional game. Beyond that, this is a modest club with a modest stadium and much to be modest about. Their status as a decent bet to beat Rangers over t wo games is uncomfortable and unfamiliar.
‘We’ve had good results against Rangers and Hibs this season,’ said Dowie. ‘That’s the reason people are saying that. But we’re not really thinking about what people are saying. We’re just trying to perform well on Saturday and hopefully that gives us a chance going into the following Sunday’s return leg.
‘Rangers are used to being in big games, Queens not so much. But Rangers will be under big pressure going into the game on Saturday. But listen, so will we. We’ll be under pressure to perform, but not at the same level as Rangers.
‘You don’t really know what kind of Rangers is going to turn up.’
Like others, Dowie had his expectations for the season. That Rangers, his former club, would win the league and that Hearts and Hibs would battle it out for the second promotion place.
The reality has been slightly different, the Queens defender admitting: ‘ I’m surprised. At the start of the season, everybody expected Rangers to be much closer to Hearts, possibly beating Hearts to the title, but for whatever reason, that’s not been the case.
‘They will be disappointed with their season so far. But if they get promoted through the play-offs, all that will be forgotten about.’
To have any chance of doing so, they must play better at Palmerston Park.
The artificial surface has caused Rangers huge problems t his season. Hours after Ally McCoist served his notice, they lost 2-0. More recently, McCall’s mini revival was unhinged by a 3-0 reverse.
Queens striker Gavin Reilly believes Rangers have a mental block over the pitch. Dowie is not so sure.
‘I’m surprised a lot has been made of the surface,’ he said. ‘But Rangers have played loads of games over the last two years on Astroturf, so I don’t know why that’s an issue.
‘We should just look at both team’s performances over the two games and then you will see why the results were what they were.’
The defender signed a new oneyear deal yesterday and covets one last crack at the Premiership. After Rangers, he moved to Dunfermline. His last exposure to the top tier came at East End Park.
‘That’s where every player wants to play — the Premiership. But we’re a long way away from it at the moment. If we can get past Rangers, maybe we can start to dream about it.
‘When you see the size of three clubs who are in our league — and probably shouldn’t be — it would be an unbelievable achievement.’
“We will be under pressure but
not at the same level as Rangers”