Queen’s Park head coach Gus MacPherson is looking forward to his ‘surprise package’ side facing League 2 leaders Albion Rovers at Hampden on Saturday in one of the key games of the season.
MacPherson is up to speed with his opponents as he watched the Coatbridge club move four points clear of his second-placed Spiders with their 2-0 win at fellow title chasers Arbroath on Wednesday.
He said: “Albion Rovers have built a good lead and that is not really a surprise as they invested well in their squad during the summer.
“We seem to have the label of ‘surprise package’ and that is probably correct. We had a new group of players and they had to go out and earn respect at this level of football. They have done that now.”
After the worst season in the club’s 147-year history in the last campaign, ensuring that Queen’s Park did not finish in the play-off against the Highland or Lowland League winners to keep their senior place was all that was really looked for in MacPherson’s first full season in charge.
He added: “We had a huge turnaround in players and the only objective at the start of the season was for this side to be competitive.
“The players have gone about doing that in a determined fashion. Not only are they competitive against other teams, there is huge competition for places in our team.
“I said last week that our biggest game was away to Elgin and that has been played so this is now our biggest game. Once this one is out of the way then the biggest one will be away to Berwick.
“I have said all along that we will focus on each game as it comes. It will become tougher to do that as we are at the business end of the season however one game at a time is all I will be looking for the players and staff to concentrate on.”
Whatever the result tomorrow, MacPherson is convinced that the title chase is far from over: “I would have preferred a draw between Arbroath and Albion Rovers on Wednesday but there will be a lot of twists and turns to emerge between now and the end of the season.
“East Stirlingshire and Elgin have both developed into strong sides in 2015. What they have done recently typifies this league in that if you can get some momentum behind you, and go seven or eight games undefeated, you really climb the table as everyone else is taking points off each other.
“At the top, Albion Rovers, Arbroath and ourselves will be looking to put in a run like that. At the bottom Montrose are trying to do that as well -any team that can beat Arbroath 3-0 must be good so everyone is in for an exciting finish.”
Craig Stewart
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