Queen of the South 1 Raith Rovers 1

Last updated : 16 April 2005 By Footymad Previewer
Raith may be doomed to the second division, but they are certainly making their mark on the first division table.

They travelled to Dumfries to dent Queen of South's hopes of a fourth place finish by drawing 1-1, this following on from their success a week ago in beating Partick Thistle.

Manager Gordon Dalziel was delighted with the performance of his young players and said: "They are a young side and I felt they thoroughly deserved the point and might even have lifted all three had a second-half shot gone in instead of hitting the bar."

Queen's made their breakthrough after 25 minutes when a cross from Tommy English hit referee Ian Brines in the face and rebounded back to English. This time his cross was headed home by striker David McNiven.

But Raith hit back following a break-away raid 10 minutes later. A free-kick from Paul McMullan was punched out by keeper Richard Barnard but only went as far as Neil Jablonski, who hammered the ball home from 25 yards.

Both sides had chances after that, but Raith came closest when Jonathan Smart hammered in a shot which hit the underside of the bar and bounced clear, with referee Brines waving play-on despite Rovers' claims that the ball had crossed the line.