Managers post Queen of the South

06/05/17: AJ - "at the end of the day it was all about finishing fifth.

Allan Johnston disputed suggestion from media in Dumfries that his team had stolen the three points from Queen of the South.

"I wouldn`t say stole. Probably in the second half they had the better chances. We had the best chance in the first half.

"It is a difficult place to come at the best of times, especially with the surface and the wind. After the run that the boys have been on it is about time that they got a wee bit of luck. It doesn`t get much luckier than the goal we scored.

"We are happy to get that. The most important thing today was getting a result to make sure that we finished fifth. Next year we just have to make sure that we build on that.

"It has been a good second half of the season. You can see that we are not far away from the top teams and that is where we want to be next year. It has been a good first season back."

The winning goal was unexpected on the sidelines, certainly in the way that it came about and left most of the press box puzzling over what had actually happened. AJ was asked his view of the goal.

"To be fair I had just turned round. I think it was just a long kick out, I think Nicky headed it, Lee (Robinson) slipped and sometimes that happens. We have had our fair share of bad luck this year as well but the most important thing was finishing fifth. Now we have a wee bit of momentum we can take that into next year as well."

Asked if he had a view on the Queen of the South manager`s claim that his side should have been awarded a penalty when Stephen Dobbie went down in the box and was shown a yellow card, the Pars gaffer replied:-

"The referee is probably in a good position. We would obviously say that he went down very easily. I don`t think you can really complain too much, at the end of the day it was all about finishing fifth.

"It is good for our lads given the start we had. We know that next season is going to be a massive test and we need to get that bit of extra quality to try and get up there. It is a big jump between where we are just now and where we want to be.

"We have quality, we have a lot of good players and it is our first year back in the Championship. I think as a club we are going in the right direction. We just have to keep on progressing, keep the majority of players that we have got and add a bit of quality then hopefully this year we can improve on what we have done this year."

Asked if the re-building for next season was a major task or a refinement, Allan replied:-

"Definitely not a massive one, we have a lot of good players and it will still be tough trying to keep them. That`s the problem.

"We will keep as many of the good players as we can because you could see in the second half of the season that we can compete with any team in this league. If we can add a bit of quality that will improve us and could take us to the next level."

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