Queen of the South succumbed to their first home defeat in almost a year as they lost out 1-0 in a tight contest against Raith Rovers at Palmerston Park.

The only goal of the game came after 17 minutes as Greig Spence capitalised on some poor defending from the home side.  Queens created chances throughout the game but were denied on a number of occasions by an in-form David McGurn in the Raith goal.  Queens` task was made much more difficult as they were reduced to ten men when Mark Durnan lashed out and saw red with 12 minutes to play.

Queens manager Jim McIntyre: “If you look at the chances created then we`re really disappointed that we haven`t taken any of them.  I think their goalkeeper was man of the match without a shadow of a doubt.

“That`s this level, in the First Division you know that you are going to have to defend properly and we did not do that.  The goal that we lost was terrible defending, the striker has the freedom of the six yard box for a tap in – he must have thought that Christmas had came early.”

As well as the poor defending that led to the Raith goal McIntyre was disappointed with Mark Durnan`s actions that led to his dismissal but was also keen to look at the positive aspects of his team`s performance:

“It was 100% a sending off and he`s stupid.  He`s lashed out, it`s petty and we`ll deal with that internally.

“I`ve been involved in many a game when you wonder where the next goal is coming from but we created chances.  I thought they scored against the run of play, I think we were the better side up until then.  I didn`t think we deserved to lose the game today and with the amount of chances we missed it`s disappointing.

“We weren`t ruthless at either end and that`s what has cost us.”

Stephen McKenna looked accomplished once again in a more advanced role in midfield and was eager to move on as the club take on Rangers at Palmerston on Tuesday:

“It`s always disappointing to lose but I think we were creating chances today and it was just a combination of great saves by their goalie McGurn and bad finishing from us.  That`s what happens in this division, if you don`t take your chances then you don`t win games.

“It`s always good to play in these big occasions so hopefully we can do ourselves proud.  Obviously they are a division below us but we`ll be the underdogs going into the game but if we play the way we can play and create chances and actually take them against Rangers then we`ll have a chance.”

 Spence nets and the almost year long record is gone