Manager on Friday

04/12/09: "I don't know anyone who goes to Somerset Park and gets an easy game. They are fighting for their lives and have played really well.

Jim McIntyre gave an update this lunch time after his photocall for receiving the IRN BRU Phenomenal Manager of the month for November. He rated injured defenders Neil McGregor and Calum Woods chances of making Saturday's match at Ayr as only 50/50. Greg Fleming has revealed that his injured finger is only dislocated and he may not be out as long as originally feared. Apart from those Stephen Glass is a long term injury.

"Greg's finger is not fractured so that is good news and it could half the time that he is out; instead of six weeks it will be three to four."

After making the trip to Dumfries for the second time in ten days, the Manager was very pleased to take all three points from Tuesday night's match:-

"I thought we started slowly but came into it after they scored; we seemed to wake up and started winning more second balls. We got ourselves a foothold in the game and went on to score two which was great coming back from a goal down.

"In the second half Queens had us under a bit of pressure but they never really looked like scoring to be honest. Our defence was excellent, they had a lot of high balls to deal with and big Holmes is a difficult player to play against. Sometimes it is not about the headers he wins but the second ball and the space they run into - I thought they handled that pretty well. We got a wee bit of luck here and there which every team needs.

"There was no doubt that it was an energy sapping game, they were out on their feet but they stuck to it and got the result. They have been looked after in the last couple of days to get the energy back in them, so we are ready to go again.

"I don't know anyone who goes to Somerset Park and gets an easy game. They are fighting for their lives and have played really well. They played really well against us up here but we had a twenty minute period where we were excellent and banged in three goals. No, we will not be underestimating anything; you can see how Dundee were two goals up there but got pegged back to two each. We have had them watched the last couple of weeks and they have been unlucky. They won last week but in previous weeks their form was better than their results suggest.

"There is not much between any team in this division that's how when we are unbeaten in eight games we have only moved two places. We have moved from seventh to fifth having won five and drawn three. Normally in any other league that would have sailed you right up the league. It just shows you what a competitive and good league it is."