Scrap to stay on the throne
Coyle tells Queen’s to dig deep afer slips
Raith Rovers....................2
Queen’s Park...................0 Owen Coyle admits his league leaders need to arrest their form slump rapidly if they want to keep their title dreams alive.
The Queen’s Park boss watched his team turn in another lacklustre display as goals from Tom Lang and Lewis Vaughan earned Raith Rovers a deserved win at Stark’s Park.
After their shock defeat at home to Arbroath last week, the Spiders have now lost consecutive league games for the first time since October.
Their lead at the top of the table has been cut to just one point over a Dundee side who have a game in hand and now also boast a superior goal difference.
Coyle pointed out they still have fate in their own hands with a potential title decider in the last game of the season against Dundee on May 5.
But he knows next Friday night’s clash away to Partick Thistle now takes on added significance.
Coyle admitted: “It’s a punch on the nose and we need to take it. But if we win our last five games we are still champions.
“But to do that we need to start getting better performance levels overall. Our passing needs to be better, it was a bit sloppy today.
“We haven’t been at our best levels in our last two games and we need to rectify it quickly.”
Lang headed home Aidan Connolly’s corner for the opener and Rovers added a second through Vaughan even though Dom Thomas had an earlier penalty saved by Jamie McDonald.
Rovers boss Ian Murray said: “We know it’s going to be really tight for the play- offs. If we keep winning games, we’ll be there.”