For the second week running this Saturday Queens are at home to the League Leaders. Falkirk came down to Dumfries as the table toppers last week but lost their spot following our 2-0 win. That allowed Dundee, who beat Hamilton 1-0, to leapfrog back into top spot. Now it is Dundee`s turn to try to bring to a halt the excellent run of form Queens are in.
Queens are unbeaten in five and have lost just one of their last nine on a run which has taken us from 8th to 4th and moved us from 15 points off the top on December 1st to just 8 points right now. And that would become 5 points if we could beat Dundee on Saturday.
We`ve not had our problems to seek in team selection over the past couple of weeks but that is starting to clear up now and the squad looks really strong. Although Paul Burns will serve a one match suspension on Saturday, captain Chris Higgins and top scorer Iain Russell return from suspension and are available for selection. Zander Clark and Derek Young also continue their return towards fitness, though it remains to be seen whether or not this game will come too early for them. Last week`s new signing Mark Kerr will also come into contention for a start having made a successful debut from the bench against Falkirk. Gavin Reilly meantime will be hoping his two goals from the subs bench against the Bairns will be enough to earn him a start.
Dundee recently parted company with manager John Brown despite being joint top of the division at the time and have moved quickly to replace him with former Alloa Athletic manager, Paul Hartley. Hartley has seen plenty of Queens over the last two seasons having already managed Alloa against us eight times in that period. Although Queens have had the better of those exchanges, particularly this season, he can lay claim to being the only manager to beat us in a league match last season before the title was clinched.
We have a good record against Dundee at Palmerston over the last decade or so, including a 4-3 win on the opening day of this season so let`s hope that is still the case come Saturday night. There will no doubt be a big support down from Dundee and a good atmosphere in the ground. Come along and support the team.
** Remember that the Ticket Office for the Gates Stand side of the stadium has been relocated to the Arena Reception Desk for Saturday **