THE CHAMPIONSHIP

qOS 3 Lyle (70), Jacobs (83), Thomson (90+3) MOrtON 0

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH boss Gary Naysmith hailed his players after their 3-0 victory gave them their first home league win for four months.

He said: “I thought the boys thoroughly deserved the win.

“They seem to be growing in confidence with every game after their fall-off in mid season.”

But it was a game which got off to a slow start with both teams struggling in the early stages to make any headway and play was pretty well restricted to midfield with neither keeper tested.

It was on the quarter hour before the first real attempt was made on goal when Stephen Dobbie worked an opening in the Morton defence but his shot was well off target.

Queens began to look dangerous and following a corner, keeper Derek Gaston had to pull down a header from Darren Brownlie just under the bar.

This seemed to give the Greenock side a wake-up call and they pushed forward to force three corners in quick succession before Queens managed to scramble the ball clear.

The tempo fell away after the interval with neither side seeming able to find a cutting edge.

The breakthrough eventually came on 70 minutes when a free kick from Thomas out on the right saw Derek Lyle outjump the defenders to head past the helpless Gaston.

And Queens should have put the game beyond doubt minutes later when Dobbie intercepted a pass back and shot against the keeper with Lyle following up, putting it just outside the post.

But the Dumfries men did go further ahead in 83 minutes when Kyle Jacobs cracked home a drive from 25 yards.

And Joe Thomson killed off the game in injury time by running the length of the field to slip the ball past the advancing keeper.