QUEEN’S Park may have lost at Peterhead on Saturday, but boss Billy Stark was full of praise for his patched-together side.
The Spiders started the game without six first team regulars, but still put in a good performances to run the Blue Toon close.
A combination of sickness, injury and suspension put Billy Stark’s preparations up in the air - especially with a sickness bug ruling out two players on the Saturday morning.
Billy said: “We had Ronald and Dunn out with injury, Kettlewell and Sinclair suspended, and overnight we lost Agostini and Canning, who both went down with a sickness bug.
“That’s six players, which is a lot for anybody to cope with, but the boys did brilliantly.
“Peterhead are a good strong side, and playing up there is always difficult.
“Right now, we seem to be getting punished for every mistake we make - the keeper came out and got a hand to the ball, it came out to their boy who hit it, and it trundled through the bodies into the net.
“I don’t remember them having another chance, which is so frustrating for us, and their keeper had a couple of international-class saves..
“But I was delighted with the boys - they can be really proud of the way they played.
“Injuries and sickness are things you can put down to bad luck, and sometimes suspensions can be as well. Some cards are a bit harsh - but we can’t complain about the ones we’ve had so far.“
Queen’s Park host Berwick this Saturday, in a division two league game, when they hope to have at least three of the missing players from Saturday back in the side.
Billy said: “The two boys who were out with sickness will hopefully have regained their strength, and Sinclair will be free of suspension, although he has a wee groin niggle.
“Kettlewell still has another couple of games out with suspension, Dunn will be out, and Ronald could possibly be back.
“We know Berwick, having battled with them over the past couple of seasons. They’ve been one of the top teams in division three and are always tough opposition, and it will be the same on Saturday.
“We’ve had a poor run of results lately, but if I’d been told I could have three wins from our first seven games I’d have been happy with that, as it isn’t too bad, having come up a division.
“We’re going to have home advantage, so hopefully we can make that count on Saturday.”
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