Cove Rangers were the visitors for our penultimate scheduled home game in league one. After picking up injuries and suspensions at Kelty last week, manager Peter Murphy made five changes to the starting line-up. Jack Hannah missed out after his red card, while Ross Stewart and Kurtis Guthrie hadn?t recovered from their knocks and Zander Mackenzie and Taylor Charters dropped to the bench. Jamie Sneddon who joined on an emergency loan from Falkirk took over in goals, while Mikey Hewitt, Brennan Dickenson, Liam Smith all came in along with Jordan Allan who made his first start this campaign.

It was Reece Lyon who got us underway and with less than a minute played, Nicky Clark hit a right footed snap shot just wide of the upright. Minutes later, Balint Demus made a terrific save to stop Dickenson?s header as he got on the end of Kai Kennedy?s corner.

Cove then won a corner of their own that former Queens midfielder, Lewis O?Donnell played into the area for Mitch Megginson to head down but the home side managed to clear.

Queens were really in control and as Clark played a one-two with Benji Luissint, he hit the return pass first time, he kept it low but it was the wrong side of the post. Smith then set up a chance for Allan but the forward was falling back when he connected and dragged it wide.

The visitors had rarely threatened but midway through the half Adam Emslie hit a strike from outside the box that came back off the base of the post.

Seven minutes from the break, Smith, Allan and Kennedy moved the ball around well as they made their way towards the box but there was no one up in support as the final ball was played in.

The hosts were still pushing forward and Callum Penman did well to keep the ball in at the by-line before cutting it back but it was cleared just ahead of Clark who was at the near post. And in the closing minutes Allan played a good ball into the middle of the box for Lyon but he headed over and on the stroke of half time, as Kennedy floated a free-kick in, Matty Douglas header was collected by Demus.

HALF TIME: Queens 0 Cove Rangers 0

Queens made a quick start to the second half and within minutes, Allan missed a header as he got on the end of a cross. Things settled for a while before on the hour mark, Kennedy raced off down the left and delivered for Allan but his shot came back off the back of Cooper Masson.

The goal did come seven minutes later when Luissint beat Demus with a pile-driver into the bottom corner from distance. It was no more than Queens deserved and as they looked to extend the advantage, Kennedy tried to curl a shot into the top corner but it was carried out by the wind.

Cove were struggling to cope with the attacking force of Queens and Blair Yule picked up a booking for dragging Smith to the ground by the neck. From the resulting free-kick, Kennedy played the ball into the box but Hewitt headed well over.

Seb Mason had replaced Allan and was a threat, the big striker won a corner that Kennedy played in only for it to be cleared out the other side as Douglas attacked. The second corned was knocked on by Dickenson but fell in between Hewitt and Douglas.

Eleven minutes from time, Queens did double their lead as a corner was cleared it fell to Lyon outside the box and he caught it sweetly to fire a right foot shot into the bottom corner.

Confidence was high and as Mason didn?t rush at it, he controlled the ball well to set up an opening for himself but the keeper managed to save.

With ninety-minutes on the clock, Smith who had been lively throughout the game made his way into the box but as he homed in on goal, his left foot shot was blocked by Demus and then Lyon fired just wide.

FULL TIME: Queens 2 Cove Rangers 0