Queen of the South 2-5 Raith Rovers: Raith maintain perfect start but stunning attacking display is blighted by injury concerns

It was an entertaining fixture but sadly some of the shine was taken off as Rovers had to make three enforced changes though injuries to Kyle Benedictus, Keiran MacDonald and Ethan Ross with the Aberdeen loanee leaving the ground on crutches and requiring a scan.

Paul Smith was again deputising for the absent John McGlynn in the dugout and it was an unchanged side from last weekend’s 3-0 win over Arbroath that took to the field in Dumfries.

It took just 50 seconds for the deadlock to be broken when Regan Hendry played a great ball over the top which caught the home defence off guard and allowed Ross Matthews in on goal who didn’t make the best connection but still managed to guide it past Rohan Ferguson to give the visitors a dream start.

The celebrations were short lived however and Queens were back level just three minutes later after Regan Tumilty brought down Euan East in the area. The Rovers full-back was yellow carded and Stephen Dobbie dispatched the spot kick low to the left sending Jamie MacDonald the wrong way.

It had been a frantic start to the game and it didn’t slow down from there as Rovers were back in front on 11 minutes when, after an attacking free kick, the ball was cleared only as far as Iain Davidson who played in a beauty of a cross and Manny Duku rose highest at six yards to head across goal and in to the top corner.

Rovers had a few more chances through Duku with another header and a Matthews effort from distance before finding their third when Tumilty was played in to space down the right and drove the ball low across the face of goal where Dan Armstrong had an easy first touch finish from inside the six yard box.

Rovers were playing some exciting football in the first half and were well worth their 3-1 lead at the break with the home side posing little threat.

Things changed drastically in the second half though and Queens came out all guns blazing looking for a way back in to the game.

With the exception of the penalty Jamie MacDonald had been a spectator in the first half but he was called in to action to twice save from Connor Shields.

Dobbie fired a shot over the bar and Nortei Nortey forced MacDonald in to a good block before Queens made their pressure pay off.

The ball was whipped in from a corner, cleared then played in again and centre back Ayo Obileye headed it in.

Queens continued to cause problems at set pieces with Wullie Gibson forcing a decent save from a back post effort out of MacDonald before Rovers managed to land a sucker punch and restore their two goal advantage.

They broke up the pitch with Queens attacking and Brad Spencer slipped in Dylan Tait with a beautiful through ball, the home defence claimed for offiside but no flag came and Tait calmly slid the ball past Ferguson to make it 4-2.

Queens weren’t done though and had no intention of letting Rovers be comfortable as Regan Hendry headed a Obileye header off the line from another corner before Dobbie rattled the cross bar with a piledriver of a free kick from 25 yards.

There was a real urgency about Queens right up until Duku dealt them the killer blow on 85 minutes when he took advantage of a blunder from Obileye at the back to nip in and slide the ball past Ferguson to wrap up the three points.

Other than the injuries to the Rovers trio the saddest part of this result was that such an entertaining game had to be played in front of an empty stadium.