Win halts losing run

PETER Murphy was delighted to watch his Queen of the South team end their losing run with a last gasp winner at home to Alloa Athletic. He said: “We needed that, we needed the win. To get it, in the last minute and in the last second is unbelievable. “I’m delighted to get three points, we’ve got a couple of weeks now to get injured players back.” The manager had a sneaky feeling before the fixture that the goal would come from a set piece. And that proved to be the case as Mikey Hewitt scored the pivotal goal after the ball was nodded to him following a free kick. Murphy added: “I don’t think anybody coming here today with the weather this weekend was expecting a spectacle. We just needed to find a way. I felt before the game that it might come down to a set piece. “We scored from a second phase of a set piece, it’s good that we capitalised on that and we need to keep improving that.” The win against the Wasps brought a four game losing run to a halt, Murphy said: “The East Fife defeat was a learning curve for some of our younger players. “Inverness was a real set back. Then going away to Montrose, in conditions like it was, was a battle. We won those individual battles and got the win. “It’s been a tough four defeats, I thought that it was a tough eight minutes against Hearts U21. But I’m not really looking at those cup games.” A big positive for the boss was getting Brennan Dickenson through the full 90 minutes. And the manager hopes other players will soon start to return from injury. Benjamin Luissint and Kurtis Guthrie are both close to making their returns, however, Jordan Allan has suffered a set back and will be missing for another month. Reflecting on the first nine games, Murphy added: “I’m not happy with the first quarter, when we look at last season we are one point worse off – that needs to be better. “I think our second quarter was very bad last season, so we need to improve that this season.”