Stevie Nicholas can fire Queen's Park free of relegation, says Gardner Speirs

Nov 20 2008 By Fraser Wilson

QUEEN'S Park boss Gardner Speirs is banking on new signing Stevie Nicholas banging in the goals to stave off the threat of relegation at Hampden.

Ex-Motherwell striker Nicholas put pen to paper on Saturday morning and was thrown in from the start as the Spiders were thumped 3-0 at home to Ayr United.

The result means it's now seven games since Queen's last won - against this weekend's opponents Alloa - and the side are just three points off bottom place.

But Speirs reckons he saw enough in his new striker on Saturday to give him hope that Queen's can dig themselves out of the rut.

"We're delighted to get Stevie," said Speirs. "We tried to sign him in August but at that time he wanted a break from the game.

"But he was soon missing playing and got in touch with us a week ago and it was just a question of getting him signed.

"He is a good age for our squad as he has experience but isn't exactly old at 27 and hopefully he can add goals to our game which we have been sorely missing.

"Stevie has that bit of experience to draw fouls out of defenders and on Saturday you could see he had that extra bit of knowledge to get corners and throw-ins out of nothing situations."