Queens chief Peter Murphy reckons their heavy weekend defeat could be the “wake up call” his squad needs.
The Doonhamers were thumped 5-1 at Palmerston by Kelty Hearts to end their impressive unbeaten home run of four league wins from four games.
And piling on the misery for Murphy, he had to watch in despair as skipper Matty Douglas was dismissed in the second half for his second bookable offence.
Murphy said: “We were frustrated and maybe it was to do with the fact we started the day off at the top of the league and there was a bit of over confidence there and I think we got found out.
“So that is maybe a good wake up call for us and we can now start this second quarter stronger and pay attention to the details.
“There is plenty to work on. I thought we were too easily countered, too easily picked off and then we gave the ball away very cheaply and we were open to the counter attacks.”
He acknowledged Kelty Hearts were by far the better team and remarked: “After 25 minutes we started really well, but Kelty Hearts were absolutely excellent and they came with a game plan to sit in and counter attack and they had a number of counter attacks and scored off one of them which changes the whole game.
“I have had days like this before as a manager where the opposition team and everything they do comes off and for us it just wasn’t quite there. I think they had six shots on target and scored five of them so they have had a very good day.
“But for us, when you look at it, we scored one goal and didn’t really deserve too much more out of the game because I thought we were sloppy, I thought we were slack and to top it off we had Matty Douglas sent off.
“It finishes the game off in a really terrible way that Kelty could enjoy the ball and we found it very difficult to get the ball back and to try to get into the game. So hopefully we can put this to bed now and we have got a break for a week which is a bit disappointing because we would love to be back playing straight away.”
Ironically, Queen of the South started well and dominated the opening sparring before Kieran McKechnie blazed a close range shot over with the goal at his mercy.
Kelty then cracked in three goals before the interval and although Queens pulled one back early in the second half through Mikey Hewitt, the visitors scored another couple either side of Douglas’ dismissal.
Murphy said of the glaring miss: “There was a big chance that McKechnie missed, but we just cannot talk about that one chance changing the game.
“Maybe we need to pay attention more to details day in, day out and not think you are a good side just because you are sitting on the top of the league. You have to prove it week in, week out and that will be the challenge going forward.”