Queen of the South boss tells players to live with physical side after Clyde draw

Queens boss Marvin Bartley has told his players they will need to learn to live with the physical side of games if they want to be successful.

The Palmerston boss feels his side were bullied by part-time side Clyde as they huffed and puffed their way to a point in Lanarkshire.

He said: “The first half performance is so far off what is acceptable and what we have been producing. We had told the players what to expect, we told them if they deal with the physical side and set-plays, they will win the game.

“We didn’t deal with those. We were bullied and they showed more heart and determination than most of us and that is unacceptable.

“It isn’t good enough when other teams are working harder than you and physically dominating you, putting their heads in when boots are flying – that’s what part-time teams do and if you don’t match that you’re never going to climb the table in this league and you’re never going to be successful. That is something I need to address.”

It was a poor opening 45 minutes for the Doonhamers as they struggled to get to grips with the game and one that frustrated Bartley.

He added: “I saw people jumping out of tackles, people kicking the ball because they think someone else is coming in, that can’t happen when you’re on the football pitch. That is the worst 45 minutes of football since I’ve come in as manager.

“You can’t just turn up for half a game, nobody in this league is good enough to turn up for 45 minutes. Good teams do it every minute of every game, you can’t play good free-flowing football all the time, but you need to stand up and be counted like they did at the end of the Airdrie game and help each other.”

Queens trailed at the interval but Ruari Paton did get them back