No boycott plea!

QUEEN of the South boss Peter Murphy is calling on fans not to boycott his side’s Challenge Cup match against Rangers B on Saturday. The Doonhamers are braced for a low turnout for their next group match with many supporters opting not to attend. This is due to them rejecting the idea of Premiership reserve teams competing in the cup. Attendances for games against the top flight kids have been dismal across the nation. But Murphy hopes Queens can buck that trend this weekend with a strong crowd, which could potentially go towards his player budget. Murphy said: “My message for the fans would be to come along and support us at every home game because we need the support and going forward, for a club like ourselves, we need all the finances available. “An extra 200 or 300 fans coming that gives me a helping hand with the budget in January, depending where we are in the league. “The atmosphere created here with more people through the gate helps. We need those fans to make some noise and help push the players on. “I found that in the later stages of the Kelty game, when we put that little bit more pressure on, that the fans’ energy lifted and I think that pushed the players over the line. “So I think we need as many fans through the door as possible - and that’s not just the cup ties.” Onto the match itself, Queens take on the depleted Ibrox young-guns who will be have eight players away on international duty. And Murphy – who previously stated he wasn’t a fan of the new Challenge Cup group format – has said he’ll pick a strong team for the encounter. He added: “We’ve got to make sure we’re raring to go and have everyone available to pick a strong side. “That’s because we found when we changed the team against East Kilbride, bringing the younger players from the start, that we didn’t do really well. “Maybe it’ll be one or two changes rather than wholesale changes. “We’ll hopefully get to watch a couple of their previous matches. But with it being the international break, I’ll hazard a guess that they’ll have a few of their boys away representing their country too. That could affect how they come and play here.” Meanwhile, Murphy revealed he met with the board of directors for a second time. Explaining the situation after Queens’ 2-1 victory over Kelty Hearts which moved the Dumfries side to the top of League One, Murphy said: “We had a second meeting with the CEO, chairman and director. “It went as expected that we will have to try and carry on with the squad that we have. “Hopefully we can keep that squad fit, the squad is more than good enough to compete in the league. But if we do have a few injuries then that’s when it could cause us a little bit of a problem. “We still probably need to bring a goalkeeper in but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to do that. “We still have the loan agreement with Kilmarnock. We’re still in discussions with a player who is still out injured. But once he’s available he’ll probably be here.” Murphy also gave updates about injured duo Brennan Dickenson and Jordan Allan. Dickenson – who was out running in the warm-up last weekend – is four weeks away from joining the group. Allan has had “persistent swelling” after his knee op and is a good bit off from returning.