Johnston hails his troops after breathtaking finale
QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 3 Obileye (29 pen), Shields (32, 90’+1)
AYR UNITED 2 Reading (7), Buchanan (90 og)
Allan Johnston hailed his Queen of the South side’s character after a nail-biting end to their clash at Palmerston Park.
Ayr United thought they had earned a point with Gregor Buchanan’s owngoal in stoppage time, but Connor Shields bagged his second moments later for the Dumfries outfit’s second win on the bounce and moved them clear of the Championship exit door.
An elated Queens manager said: “You can see the players gave everything. I thought some of the performances were brilliant, especially Connor. In the last few games, I think he’s hit top form. With the pace he’s got centre-halves hate playing against him and the rest of the team were excellent.
“The energy in the team was brilliant.
“We knew turning things around would take hard work and that has shown in the last two matches. We’ve got to make sure we don’t let them levels stop.”
The visitors scored with the first chance of the contest when a Michael Millar cross was smashed home from the unmarked Patrick Reading from six yards.
Ayr almost doubled their lead on 20 minutes. Tom Walsh squared to Reading on the edge of the box and the defender fired just wide of the target.
Mark Kerr’s side squandered another chance moments later when Luke Mccowan’s close-range effort was palmed behind by Rohan Ferguson.
Ayr were made to rue their earlier misses when Miller handled a Joe Mckee shot inside the area. Ayo Obileye made no mistake from the spot and sent Viljami Sinisalo the wrong way on the half hour mark.
Incredibly, the hosts turned the game on its head three minutes later thanks to a marvellous individual strike from Shields. The forward ran half the length of the field and burst past Andrew Murdoch on the byline. Shields then used sublime strength and skill to slot the ball past Sinisalo.
Shields really should’ve extended the Doonhamers’ lead but his missed from 10 yards on 56 minutes.
Ten minutes later, Ayr spurned a glorious chance to level when Joe Chalmers’ quick free-kick caught the home defence napping to thread through Michael Moffat, but the veteran striker’s effort glanced narrowly wide.
Ayr continued to push for an equaliser but Ferguson pulled off two terrific saves to deny Moffat and Roscoe.
Their pressure paid off in the dying stages when Cameron Smith’s shot was deflected into the net off Gregor Buchanan.
However, Queens pushed for a winner and up stepped Shields who slotted past Sinisalo for his fourth goal in three matches.
A disappointed Ayr boss Mark Kerr said: “We conceded soft goals. We were comfortable in the first half and had three or four chances to go 2-0 up but we didn’t do that. We gave it away and we’re constantly missing chances.
“It’s sickening as we had a chance to push up the league with the games that were postponed but now, we’re down in the mix.”