Sandy Clark revealed how injury-hit Queens had just 11 fit players only days before the weekend win over Ayr.
The Doonhamers No.2 lavished praise on crock stars Euan East and Josh Debayo for coming to the rescue while battling for full match fitness.
Clark hailed the dynamic duo after East got Queens off to a flier with an early opener in a 3-0 win.
He admitted: “We would not have won without them.
“The fact that they played when they were not 100 per cent, not physically short, but match fitness short, says a lot for them.
“Euan had started the week before against Dunfermline but needed time and a break to recover as he’d not played for a while and he did not train until last Friday.
“In fact, on the Thursday we only had 11 fit players training and available for the game.
“Josh Debayo only trained one day and with them in it took us up to 13 while Aidan Fitzpatrick was on the bench but not match fit although his injury has cleared up.
“Aidan had only one day of training as well.
“The two players, Josh and Euan, made a huge difference for us. Josh played at left back and he is not a natural left back.”
Clark revealed the injury list is easing slightly and added: “Ben Liddle is not far away while Alex Cooper is also not far away from a comeback either. He might be a couple of weeks after his hamstring injury which he suffered when he slipped towards the end of the last game. Paul McKay is to get an MRI scan in the hip area and we will see what happens after that.”
Clark was impressed with the Doonhamers display as they crushed the Somerset Park side with three goals and created more chances. He added: “It was a great result and I am delighted.
“It was obviously our best result of the season and the really pleasing thing was to score three goals but it could have been more.
“And the clean sheet is every bit as pleasing as well. Every single player did their job out there.
“If you are playing one from the top five or one in the bottom they are still really, really hard games.”
