Queen of the South boss hails side after first competitive win

Queen of the South boss Peter Murphy hailed his side after their first competitive win under his charge.

But he revealed how a stuttering first half against Dumbarton in their Premier Sports League Cup clash provoked a halftime roasting for his players before realising he went overboard with a couple of new signings.

Murphy said: “I made a couple of changes due to a couple of niggles and in the first half we didn’t do as well as what we have been working towards to in the last few weeks and I was very upset at halftime.

“But then I realised a couple of players I was having a go at, one of the young ones was Zander Craik who has only been with us for two days and in those two days he hadn’t done any real shape stuff.

“So that was my fault for not being able to integrate him into the way we want to play.”

Queens ran out 2-0 winners at Palmerston and Murphy admitted: “The first half was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing .

“But the second half was absolutely outstanding with some of the play and some of the passing.

“Kieran McKechnie tried an audacious lob which would have been brilliant if that had come off.

“There were plenty of positives in the second half, but it was the frustration of the first half and we cannot wait until half-time to rectify that. “

McKechnie set up Leighton McIntosh to hit his first goal for the club since joining from Arbroath and Murphy said: “It was great to see, with his first shot on target.

“Leighton can score goals but he has just missed a lot of pre-season and has still to get up to the pace of things .

“He has that physicality and pace and power and just needs a couple of players around him to help him out and we are still working towards that as well.”

McIntosh said: “I got