A comfortable 2-0 win at home to Ayr United saw Queen of the South maintain their nine-point lead at the top of the Second Division.

An early header from Ryan McGuffie and a second half tap-in from Nicky Clark gave the home side the spoils at Palmerston.

Queens manager Allan Johnston was positive in his assessment of the performance.

“Really pleasing to put on a performance like that after two tough away trips.  I’m absolutely delighted with the way we moved the ball today.

“We had the bulk of possession and created chances.  They’re going to catch you with the pace they have up front and we got caught with one long ball over the top which was down to a bit of slackness but other than that I thought we were pretty comfortable.”

Nicky Clark netted his ninth league goal of the season to continue an impressive start to the season and his manager was quick to praise the striker.

“He’s doing brilliantly as are all the lads.  Today it was a real team performance.  It could quite easily have been flat after the exploits during the week but the way they approached the game and the way they started the game you’ve got to give all credit to the boys.”

Paul Burns also praised his team mates as they continued their unbeaten start to the league season.

“I thought we started really well, we imposed ourselves onto the game, the boys were really professional and it was a great performance and a good three points.

“Confidence throughout the team is showing and we believe when we’re going into games that we are capable of winning.  They were three very tough games and we’ve managed to get nine points which is brilliant.”