By Alexander Cruickshanks

Losing 5-0 to Livingston in the Trust Trophy final was the extra salt in the wound for Queen’s Park, as their last chance at a trophy this season slipped away. The Spiders are now on a 6-game losing run, sitting 7^th in the Championship, drifting slowly towards the relegation battle.

After the sacking of Callum Davidson, Steven Maclean has taken charge of the team, and he realises the gravity of the situation saying: “As a group we’ve got to take ownership. The manager beforehand lost his job, and I think everybody has got to be part of the reason that happened.

“We’ve got a lot of young players here and they’ve got to learn. If they don’t learn it will be a harsh reality. I’ve had my career, and I know what it’s like. It’s about trying to get that across to them and it’s up to them. They are young but they’ve got to learn quickly or it’s not going to be easy.”

On Wednesday they have an opportunity to bounce back against bottom side Airdrie. If they lose this game, it will be seven defeats on the bounce, dragging them further into the relegation battle. So, it’s a huge game and Maclean realises how important it is adding: “This is where you find out what characters you’ve got. I know the sort of characters I’ve got in my staff, so we’ve got to make sure the players react properly. We’ve got to make sure we’ll take the fight to Airdrie on Wednesday and make sure we’re ready to go.”

Character and fight are a big part of what Maclean is trying to get out of his players as on Sunday and recently it has been severely lacking. Spiders skipper, Calum Ferrie echoed this sentiment speaking on the form and the defeat in the final saying: “We all know how moments can change games, but we’ve been good enough for weeks now and it’s cost the previous manager his job.

“We’ve got to take accountability as players. A really disappointing result in a cup final that we were all really looking forward to. We can’t forget what’s happened today, but we’ve got a really massive game on Wednesday night against Airdrie.”

With the season coming close to its end every point is important, especially in the fight for survival. Ferrie added: “We’ve got six more cup finals to make sure this club stays in championship. I’m not going to lie the words in the changing room there weren’t kind. You can’t play in a cup final and lose 5-0.”