Rampant Rovers too hot for Queen’s
No complaints from boss as Spiders suffer
Queen’s Park manager Gus MacPherson said he had no complaints after his side were thrashed 5-0 by one of League One’s title favourites.
Dario Zanatta netted the third goal in Raith Rovers’ rout over his former club, with Liam Buchanan, Lewis Vaughan, Bobby Barr and Jason Thomson also on target as the Kirkcaldy outfit went six points clear at the top.
The result means Queen’s stay a point above bottom-placed Forfar and boss MacPherson knows things will not get any easier as they look ahead to this weekend’s match against Ayr.
“To be 2-0 down after seven minutes, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb,” MacPherson said.
“They have very good players. I think a lot of people put Ayr down as favourites but it will certainly be between them and Raith from what I’ve seen.
“I’ve got no complaints because Raith deserved to win.”
There were a few surprises in the Spiders line-up, with a couple of personnel changes from the victory at East Fife. Michael Bailey and David Green dropped down to the bench to make way for new signing Ciaran Summers and Dominic Docherty.
On a drizzly afternoon, the Hampden surface looked pristine as the visitors kicked off.
It was important for Queen’s to start well – and for two minutes they looked fine. Then Raith got some room on the right and as the ball came into the box, the clearing header from Bobby Barr’s cross failed to do the business and fell into the path of Buchanan who rifled the ball home from 10 yards out.
Four minutes later Vaughan kept up his scoring streak when he netted for the 11th game in a row, rounding the keeper and sliding the ball into the net from an acute angle.
Queen’s started the second period with plenty of the ball but unlike their opponents in their whirlwind start, the Spiders could not find the killer pass.
And Rovers put the game to bed 10 minutes after half-time when Zanatta, on loan from Hearts, drove a good low strike into the bottom corner from close range.
Barr added a fourth 10 minutes from time when he buried a rebound after Buchanan’s strike was parried by Muir.
In the 90th minute, Thomson completed the rout when he got on the end of a sweeping team move, firing a stunning swerving strike into the bottom corner.