Queens on the hunt for another striker

Jul 3 2009 by Kieran Westbrook, Dumfries Standard Friday

QUEENS ARE on the hunt for another striker, according to Chairman Davie Rae.

After his manager signed three new players in under a month, Rae is confident with the new improved squad.

And he has told the Standard that all the club needs is another goal scorer.

Rae said: “I’m very pleased because that’s the squad more or less complete.

“There might be one more signing but other than that we are really intact now – we’ve got the squad, we’ve got the group together.

“There’s only really one more signing we’re looking to make, and that’s a striker.”

Following the departure of Sean O’Connor and Stephen Dobbie last season, Queens have added Derek Holmes and Willie McLaren to their ranks – who both can play up front.

And Rae wants more, but admits bringing in strikers is harder than filling other positions.

He added: “We don’t know for sure with this one further player.

“But this particular player would be a striker and that’s what makes it more difficult.

“Strikers are like gold dust – when you find one, the biggest problem is you can’t afford him!

“That is the only thing we’re doing now – looking for a striker.”

Another stumbling block for bringing this mystery man to Palmerston is that he remains under contract to another club.

If Queens can’t secure his services, Rae thinks a couple of the new recruits should be able to get goals.

“We’ve still got a few boys who can score goals and that’s one thing we did – sign some players who can score.

“Willie McLaren can take a chance and score a goal.

“Rocco Quinn can find the net too.

“So we’ve signed a few players who can score goals and we’ve signed Derek Holmes and he’s a sort of replacement for big Sean [O’Connor].”

With the transfer business almost finished, Rae is hoping for an improvement on the last-gasp fifth place finale of the 2008-09 campaign.

“A successful season, right off you have to say finishing top half.

“There’s no doubt about that.

“We did well to do that last year, but I’d like to hope we could push further up and finish third or fourth.

“I think we’ve a very good squad – we’ve kept some good boys on from last year and we’ve made some strong additionals.

“I think we’ve hopefully signed some good football players.

“I just hope that they all gel together and we come up with some good results.

“And I expect we will go on and do really well.”