Roberto Nditi relished his battle with Chris Burke but is still gutted by the late defeat against Kilmarnock.
The 20-year-old was touch tight to the winger for the full game and stuck to his task brilliantly but sadly Queens conceded in the 91st minute.
Burke was substituted in the 85th minute and gave Nditi a fist bump of respect after a feisty match-up between the two.
Nditi said: “It’s always nice when an experienced professional respects the job you’ve done on him.
“I told him at the start ‘It’s going to be a hard game for you, I’ll be on your case’ just to let him know. If he respects that then I know I’ve done a good job.
“There were battles but that’s football. That’s what I love – that battle.”
The former Forfar Athletic man was given the game-plan late in the week before he went toe-to-toe with the former Rangers man.
He said: “The manager spoke of the quality he has before the game and they gave me a job and I’ve tried to stick to my task as well as I could for the team.
“The task was to not give him half a yard as he’s got quality. We saw him against Ayr, we know he can hurt teams so my job was to stop that happening and I did my best.
“We were playing bounce games on Friday and the gaffer has given me the instruction that I was to stick right next to Lee Connelly and not let him out of my sight. So I’ve been following him the whole way. The gaffer told me that was possibly what I’d be doing on Saturday with Chris Burke. And that’s what I did.”
Despite his best efforts, a 91st-minute Jason Naismith strike was a hard one to take – as was a golden chance for Nditi early in the second half.
He said: “The last minute goal is a bitter one because the boys worked their socks off.
“We had all the fans supporting us and we want to do well. Everyone stuck to their tasks, it was just a lapse in concentration that’s led to the goal.
“I’m quite disappointed with the chance I missed because I want to help the team going both ways. It is playing on my mind a little bit but I’ll work on technique in training. I’ll put the next one in the back of the net.”
Going forward the Queens defender says he and his team-mates can take plenty of positives from the performance.
“We need to keep clean sheets and take our chances and we can do really well this season.”
