Perfect double’s no eze task
But Stephen’s intent on showing son medal
STEPHEN EZE has the perfect incentive to help Queen’s Park win the Championship title and avoid the play-offs.
It’s now five months since Eze’s third child, a baby boy called Perfect, was born in Nigeria and the big defender is still waiting to be reunited with his family.
Spiders boss Owen Coyle revealed that Eze was suffering from homesickness last week but it didn’t prevent him from rising to the challenge at Ochilview on Saturday.
The 29-year-old grabbed a 70th-minute winner for Queen’s as they came from behind against Inverness to stretch their lead at the top to seven points.
It leaves them in pole position to claim automatic promotion when the regular season ends on May 5. If they avoid the play-offs, which run until June 3, it will mean Eze can travel home sooner to meet the new addition to his family.
“I can’t wait to see the new baby,” said the 29-year-old. “The family were supposed to be here before now but there have been problems with the visas.
“It would definitely be nice to have a Championship medal to show him.”
Eze’s header completed a crucial turnaround for Queens who had trailed at half-time to Dan Mackay’s composed strike for Inverness.
Grant Savoury levelled for the league leaders when he nodded home a Connor Shields cross before Eze, who had earlier hit a post and missed other chances at set pieces, finally came up trumps when he scored from a Dom Thomas corner.
“I always get chances in the opposition box,” he said. “I was really happy to score the winner.
“We had to work hard for the result after going behind. We didn’t panic. We came back strongly in the second half to make it right.”
With seven games left to play, Queens are firmly in the driving seat in the title race after closest rivals Dundee dropped two more points at Partick Thistle.
But Eze insisted: “We have another home game against Arbroath on Friday night and we need to stay focused.”
It was a painful afternoon for Inverness as the Scottish Cup semi-finalists slipped to seventh in the table and are now nine points off the play-off places.
“There were a lot of positives in the first half, but in the second half we were not good enough,” said Caley Thistle defender Robbie Deas.
“I hold my hands up myself for the goals we lost.
“It was disappointing, but there are still plenty of games to play and plenty of points.
“In the first half, we felt completely in control. We just weren’t at it in the second half. Overall we weren’t good enough. We’re disappointed because we know we are miles better than that and have a good enough team to challenge for this league.
“We are playing for places for the Scottish Cup semi-final and you want to get yourself in the team, but that’s in the distance.
“The focus now goes to Friday at home to Partick Thistle. We need to start picking up points.
“We have a very strong changing room but we are not showing it with the results.”