Queen of the South boss warns players to be aware of Cove Rangers bounce back

Manager Peter Murphy has warned his Queen of the South troops to beware a bounce back from Cove Rangers in tomorrow’s first home league game of the season.

The Highland outfit slumped to a 3-1 home defeat against Annan and Queens chief Murphy reckons they’ll be out to make amends at Palmerston.

He said: “It was a great result for Annan at Cove,

“And that’s maybe a wake up call for them so we have to be aware of a reaction and do our job right.

“Since the summer Cove have had a really big turnover and 18 players have moved on, so they are probably in a rebuild as well.

“We have the potential for a player to come in, and we are now looking at having a squad of realistically 20 players instead of 26
or 27.

“But that could go to 24 with younger players coming in and they’ll maybe go out on loan as we need to develop those players
also.

“We have to make sure that the players we bring in are right and not just bring in two or three who cannot really affect the first
team.

“They need to be players that should be maybe pushing for a starting place and give us plenty of competition for players.”

Queens have another injury doubt after Zander Craik pulled out of training in midweek with a recurrence of a hamstring strain.

Murphy said: “He played for Kilmarnock in the SPFL Trust Trophy against Cowdenbeath last week although we didn’t want him to play.

“He is Kilmarnock’s player and they are short of players
too, but he got injured in that game.

“He has been carrying that for a long time but he is a young lad and wants to play and we put him on last Saturday (at Alloa) and he dropped out of training on Tuesday.

“It is a thigh injury and he is struggling to strike a ball and struggling to sprint so he will