Queens struggle in the Highlands

 

Inverness Caledonian Thistle won to move level on points with Queen of the South, who dropped a place to fifth in the Scottish Championship

Inverness C  3  Queen of the South 1 HT: 2-0 Scorers: ICT - Vigurs 2 Chalmers 29 Doran Cogan 58 Queens - Bell 85

Iain Vigurs headed an early goal for the Highlanders and Joe Chalmers fired their second before the break.

Stephen Dobbie missed a good chance for the visitors when they were one down and came close again after the break.

Aaron Doran struck the hosts' third before Owen Bell nodded one back for Queens - his first goal for the club.

Both sides are three points off the promotion play-off places.

Prior to the match, Queens confirmed Dobbie, 35, had signed a contract extension to stay at Palmerston next season.

Manager reaction

Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager John Robertson: "We've got a bit of confidence about us, we're playing well.

"We've not managed to get ourselves into the pack all season. We're catching up and we're slowly catching up.

"The first thing was to try and win the game and if we won the game, we'd come level with Queen of the South. The secondary part was if we won by three goals, we'd go above them, which we didn't quite manage to hang on to.

"We've played a lot of good football but not taken our chances. The last two or three games we're starting to take our chances, we're starting to score goals and it's different people that are scoring.

"We move up one more place today so we stay within touching distance of the teams above us and that's all we can do. We can just keep winning games and hopefully stay in contention."

Queen of the South manager Gary Naysmith: "Overall, I think they were the better team.

"Stephen's first to admit he should've scored the chance. It would've got us back 1-1 and then they go right up the park and score again.

"We changed it a wee bit in the second half and we did have a good go at it. We actually finished the game quite well.

"Not a lot of pleasing things from losing 3-1 but a pleasing thing was that they kept going, they never threw in the towel.

"We got a goal back. For young Owen, he would've wished that he scored his first goal in a game that we had won but for him to get his first goal for the club, he's a local lad, it's a good moment for him.

"We're trying to strengthen but it's difficult. We need to try and strengthen."

 

New boy Beerman challenges

Dobmeister misses a sitter

Bell scores his first for Queens

All images courtesy of www.qosfc.com